What Does Joshua 21:43 Mean?
And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they took hold of it, and settled in it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.THE KEY
Gift, inheritance, and dwelling form one movement: what is given becomes a place of settled life.
THE MEANING
The verse holds divine giving and human inhabiting together. The land is given, taken as an inheritance, and lived in, a gift made concrete as a place to dwell.
THE ROOT
וַיִּרָשׁוּהָ
vayyirashuha
GROWS FROM
י־ר־שׁ
y-r-sh
To inherit or take possession; also, in some forms, to dispossess.
“took hold of” in this verse is vayyirashuha. The word translated “possessed” also carries the sense of inheriting. The verse holds receiving and taking possession together: the land is given, then becomes a lived inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
yerushah: Inheritance
יְרֻשָּׁה
It makes explicit the inheritance contained within the verse’s word for possessing.
morashah: Heritage or possession
מוֹרָשָׁה
It shows how the same root can name what is received as an inheritance.
וַיִּתֵּן
vayyitten
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The root behind “gave” also carries the sense of setting or placing. The gift here is spatial: the land is given as the place where life can be established.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
It names the gift as something received, keeping the verse’s emphasis on giving in view.
nittan: Was given or set
נִתַּן
It shows the root’s reach from giving something to placing it in a particular position.
וַיֵּשְׁבוּ
vayyēshvu
GROWS FROM
י־שׁ־ב
y-sh-b
To sit, settle, or dwell.
“settled in it” in this verse is vayyēshvu. The word translated “dwelt” grows from a root that also means sitting and settling. The verse ends with the inheritance becoming settled life within the land.
ALSO GROWS
yoshev: One who dwells; an inhabitant
יוֹשֵׁב
It names a person by the settled presence that closes the verse.
moshav: Dwelling place or settlement
מוֹשָׁב
It shows how the root can name the place made by dwelling.
THE PATTERN
A gift becomes lived reality when it is received as an inheritance and inhabited.
For all the land that you see, I will give it to you, and to your seed for the ages.The heavens, even the heavens, are the LORD's; but the earth he gives to the children of humankind.Flourishing are the bowed, for they inherit the earth.THE THREAD
And he said to him, I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to take hold of it.The paired roots remain visible: נָתַן (natan, give) and יָרַשׁ (yarash, inherit or possess). Their movement is gift into lived inheritance; “dwelt” in Joshua completes it by naming settled life within what is received.
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