What Does Joshua 9:3 Mean?
And when the settlers of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
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 when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,THE KEY
Gibeon first meets Joshua through the report of his deeds, so the news reaches the city before Joshua does.
THE MEANING
What you hear about a force already in motion can shape your next response before you encounter it yourself. Here, the inhabitants of Gibeon hear of Jericho and Ai, and the report becomes the hinge between Joshua’s deeds and their coming move.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A response begins only when you act: this verse places its beginning earlier, in what reaches your ears.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ
vayishme’u
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
The verb here means “and they heard,” from שמע (shamaʿ), whose range includes hearing, listening, and heeding. The next verse turns this hearing into a response: the report reaches Gibeon before the Gibeonites act.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This form shows how hearing can carry a response, as it does in Gibeon’s next move.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
It names the kind of thing that reaches Gibeon here: news of what has happened.
גִּבְעוֹן
Giv’on
GROWS FROM
גבע
To rise or be elevated; a hill.
Gibeon’s name carries the sense of a hill place. The English keeps it as a place label, while the Hebrew name preserves the landform in the city’s identity.
ALSO GROWS
givʿah: Hill.
גִּבְעָה
This related word makes the elevated-land meaning in Gibeon’s name visible.
Giv’on: Gibeon; hill place.
גִּבְעוֹן
The place name itself carries the root’s sense of elevation.
THE PATTERN
News of power moves the hearer before that power arrives in person.
And when we heard these things, our hearts melted, and no breath stood up any longer in any man from your face. For the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were shattered and greatly afraid.When Herod the king heard these things, he was shaken, and all Jerusalem with him.THE THREAD
And when we heard these things, our hearts melted, and no breath stood up any longer in any man from your face. For the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.Both verses use שמע (shamaʿ, hear) for the moment a report reaches its listeners. Joshua 2:11 makes the effect explicit: what is heard has already changed their hearts before any encounter.
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