What Does Joshua 9:13 Mean?
And these wineskins, which we filled, were new; and, look, they are split; and these our garments and our sandals are worn by the very long road.
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 these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.THE KEY
Real signs of wear can make a story plausible without proving where that wear came from.
THE MEANING
A split container, worn garment, or frayed shoe can seem to carry the history that explains it. The marks of use are real, but they do not by themselves verify the journey attached to them. Visible evidence and the story told about it are not the same thing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If something bears visible signs of hardship, the account offered for those signs must be true.
THE ROOT
בָּלוּ
bālû
GROWS FROM
ב־ל־ה
To wear away, become worn, or grow old through use.
“worn” in this verse is bālû. The word names accumulated wear, the kind that looks like a record of time. The same root can describe clothing that does not wear out, so wear alone cannot tell you what journey produced it.
ALSO GROWS
lōʾ bāletāh: Did not wear out; Deuteronomy 8:4.
לֹא בָלְתָה
The same root describes clothing that remains unworn through forty years, a direct counterpoint to the worn garments offered here as evidence.
yivlû: They will wear out or grow old; Isaiah 50:9.
יִבְלוּ
This form also describes things wearing out like a garment, showing how the root makes visible age a physical process, not proof of its cause.
הִתְבַּקְעוּ
hiṯbaqqeʿû
GROWS FROM
ב־ק־ע
To split, cleave, or break open.
The word pictures the wineskins as split open, making their damage concrete. A rupture confirms that something broke; it does not reveal by itself how or when it happened.
ALSO GROWS
beqaʿ: A half-measure, a divided portion.
בֶּקַע
The related word carries the idea of something split into a part, echoing how rupture leaves a visible division.
biqʿāh: A valley or cleft plain.
בִּקְעָה
The same root describes a break in the land, extending the image of a split from a vessel to the landscape.
הַדֶּרֶךְ
haderekh
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־ך
To tread or step; as a noun, a trodden way or road.
“road” in this verse is haderekh. “Journey” carries the physical sense of a path made by repeated steps. Here, old shoes and garments are presented as the way made visible on the body and its belongings, but that wear cannot verify the route claimed.
ALSO GROWS
derek: A way, road, or journey.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the noun used in the verse: the alleged long way is presented as the cause of the worn objects.
dāraḵ: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
The verb beneath “way” brings the journey back to repeated footsteps, the kind of movement that can wear shoes down.
THE PATTERN
Visible signs can make a story persuasive while leaving its source unverified.
The open one leans his weight on every word, but the shrewd one discerns his step.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.For such are false sent ones, workers of snares, reshaping themselves into sent ones of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Your cloak did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years.Both verses use the root ב־ל־ה (b-l-h; bālāh), “to wear away.” Joshua’s garments are said to have worn out, while Deuteronomy says clothing did not wear out across forty years. The shared root makes visible wear a clue to consider, not a reliable measure of the journey behind it.
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