What Does Joshua 21:9 Mean?
And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here called by name,
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 they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name,THE KEY
The gift here is a place: the Hebrew verb for “gave” also carries the sense of setting something in place, so provision becomes somewhere to dwell.
THE MEANING
Provision takes a concrete shape here: what one part of the community holds becomes a place for another. The cities remain particular, named places even as their use is shared.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנוּ
vayyittenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place.
“gave” in this verse is vayyittenu. The verb נתן (natan, to give or set) links generosity with placement: what is given is set within another’s reach. Here, the gift is not abstract; it becomes a place to live.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
A gift from this root can be something concrete that becomes available to another, as these cities do.
netinah: Giving; an act of giving
נְתִינָה
This branch highlights the transfer itself: the cities move from one community’s inheritance into another’s dwelling.
THE PATTERN
What one part of a community holds becomes provision for another when it is given a concrete place in shared life.
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.and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.THE THREAD
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.The same root, נתן (natan, to give or set), describes the transfer of cities in both verses. The connection makes the gift tangible: territory is placed into another group’s daily life.
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