What Does Joshua 5:9 Mean?
And the LORD said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the taunt of Egypt from off you. Therefore the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
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 said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.THE KEY
What is rolled off you gives its name to the place where you stand.
THE MEANING
The LORD names a change taking place in you now: the reproach attached to constriction is rolled away. What marked a former confinement no longer defines your standing; Gilgal keeps that release visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a past season of constriction gets to remain your name.
THE ROOT
גַּלּוֹתִי
galloti
GROWS FROM
גלל
gll
To roll, roll away, or roll together.
The Hebrew says the LORD has rolled the reproach from off you. Gilgal repeats the same גלל seed, so the place itself carries the verb: shame is not merely declared gone but pictured as something rolled away.
ALSO GROWS
galal: To roll or roll away.
גָּלַל
This is the root action named in the verse: the reproach is rolled from off you.
megillah: Scroll; a rolled document.
מְגִלָּה
The scroll carries the same image of something rolled, making the root’s physical action visible in another form.
Gilgal: Gilgal; a place-name associated with rolling.
גִּלְגָּל
The place-name echoes the action, so the release is carried in the name of the place.
THE PATTERN
The LORD removes reproach that once marked a person, making its removal part of their story.
And she conceived and bore a son, and said, God has gathered away my reproach.He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe tears from all faces, and he will remove the taunt of his people from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.Thus the LORD has done this for me in the days when he looked upon me, to lift away my reproach among the people.THE THREAD
Roll your way upon the LORD, and lean your weight on him, and he will do it.The Hebrew verb גּוֹל (gol), meaning “roll,” is from גלל, the same root as “rolled” here and the name Gilgal. Joshua shows reproach rolled off you; the psalm shows your way rolled upon the LORD, two directions of one movement.
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