What Does Joshua 21:6 Mean?
And the children of Gershon received by stone out of the family of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
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 children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for each “tribe” also means a staff or rod, so Gershon’s cities are placed among four branches of a wider people.
THE MEANING
This verse places Gershon’s families in thirteen cities across Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and half of Manasseh in Bashan. Their dwelling is distributed among four tribal territories, weaving the Levites into the wider inheritance.
THE ROOT
מַטֶּה
matteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
To stretch out, extend, or incline.
The word מַטֶּה (matteh), used here for “tribe,” also means a staff or rod and is linked to נָטָה (natah), “to stretch” or “extend.” English “tribe” hides the staff image: the verse places Gershon’s families among four distinct branches of the people.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch out, extend, or incline.
נָטָה
This verbal root gives the sense of extension carried by the tribal word.
matteh: A staff or rod; also a tribe or lineage.
מַטֶּה
The same Hebrew word holds both the image of a rod and the name for a people’s lineage, linking the verse’s tribal groupings to its language of branches.
THE PATTERN
Distinct branches are placed throughout a wider whole rather than gathered in one center.
Command the children of Israel to give the Levites cities to settle in from the inheritance of their holding, and you shall also give the Levites pasturelands for the cities round about them.But now God has set the limbs, each one of them, in the body, as he willed.THE THREAD
Speak to the children of Israel, and take from them a staff for each house of their fathers, from all their princes according to the house of their fathers, twelve staffs. Write every man's name upon his staff.Numbers 17:2 uses מַטֶּה (matteh), the same Hebrew word translated “tribe” in Joshua 21:6, for each tribal rod. The shared word carries both the lineage and the staff image, casting the four territories here as branches through which Gershon’s families are placed.
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