What Does Joshua 5:15 Mean?
And the commander of the LORD's host said to Joshua, Loosen your sandal from your foot, for the place where you stand is set apart. And Joshua did so.
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 captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.THE KEY
The ground beneath Joshua is named as set apart, and the shoe between his foot and that ground comes off.
THE MEANING
The ground beneath you is set apart where the LORD’s presence meets you. Joshua removes his shoe and stands on that ground as it is named holy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Holiness belongs only to designated religious buildings; here, the ground beneath a person is called holy.
THE ROOT
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
q-d-sh
Set apart, made distinct for the sacred.
The Hebrew word names set-apartness, and the same root forms words for what is set apart and the place set apart for it. Here that word describes the ground itself: the sacred is present beneath Joshua’s feet, not only in a distant sanctuary.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective shares the root and describes the quality attributed to the ground.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary is a place formed from the same root as the holiness named here, linking sacred place with sacred ground.
מָקוֹם
maqom
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand, or be established.
Maqom, “place,” comes from a root of rising and standing. Beside the word for Joshua standing, it presents the holy place as the very ground under a body, rather than an abstract location.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise; stand.
קוּם
This verb carries the standing sense at the root of the word for place.
heqim: Raise; establish.
הֵקִים
This form shares the root and shows how what rises can also be established in a place.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD’s presence is disclosed, a place ordinary in appearance is recognized as set apart.
And he said, Do not draw near here. Loosen the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is set-apart ground.And Jacob woke out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not perceive it.Have you not seen that you are God's temple, and that the breath of God dwells in you?THE THREAD
And he said, Do not draw near here. Loosen the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is set-apart ground.The command and its reason mirror Joshua’s verse: remove the shoes because the ground where one stands is holy. Together, the verses show set-apartness meeting a person at the ground beneath their feet.
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