What Does Joshua 8:5 Mean?
And I, and all the people who are with me, will draw near to the city. And it shall be, when they come out against us as at the first, that we will flee before them.
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 I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them,THE KEY
The Hebrew root for “flee” also gives “refuge”: here retreat is a chosen passage in the plan, not proof that the plan has failed.
THE MEANING
You are shown a retreat whose purpose changes its meaning: the people move toward the city, then flee so its defenders will pursue them. What appears to be defeat is the deliberate movement that draws the defenders away from the city.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that visible retreat always means defeat: here flight is the planned action that draws the defenders away.
THE ROOT
וְנָסְנוּ
wənāsnû
GROWS FROM
נוּס
nûs
To flee, escape, or take flight.
The word in the verse is וְנָסְנוּ (wənāsnû, we will flee), from נוּס (nûs, flee or escape). Its noun branches include מָנוֹס (mānôs, refuge), a place one flees to, and מְנוּסָה (mənûsāh, flight), showing that flight can name purposeful movement as well as escape.
ALSO GROWS
mānôs: Refuge; a place of escape.
מָנוֹס
A refuge is where someone flees to, linking flight with the possibility of reaching safety.
mənûsāh: Flight or escape.
מְנוּסָה
It names the movement itself; here that movement is deliberately used to draw the defenders away.
THE PATTERN
A chosen flight can alter the field of danger by drawing pursuit away from a defended place or carrying the vulnerable out of reach.
And the children of Benjamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city onto the raised roads.And David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee. For we will not otherwise slip away from Absalom. Hurry out, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring harm upon us, and strike the city with the mouth of the sword.When they had withdrawn, look, a messenger of the LORD appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Rise, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will seek the young child to make him perish.THE THREAD
And he turned aside the wheels of their chariots, and they drove them heavily, and the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.Joshua uses flight as a chosen lure; Exodus uses the same root, נוּס (nûs, flee or escape), for the Egyptians’ actual flight. The shared root names movement away, while the surrounding words show whether that movement is strategy or panic.
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