What Does Joshua 9:9 Mean?
And they said to him, From a very distant land your servants have come, because of the nature of the LORD your God; for we have heard the report of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
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 they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,THE KEY
The LORD’s name is known through the deeds carried in a report: what is heard gives the name its nature.
THE MEANING
What the LORD does gives substance to his name: the speakers say the report of those deeds has reached them from far away. Their words place a claim of distance beside what they have heard, so the reader encounters a name whose reach exceeds the place where its deeds occurred.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The LORD’s name is an empty label, unrelated to what he does.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַעְנוּ
shamaʿnu
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed.
The Hebrew repeats this root in שָׁמַעְנוּ (shamaʿnu, “we heard”) and שָׁמְעוֹ (shamʿo, “his report” or “fame”). The report they receive and the hearing that receives it grow from the same root, so the LORD’s deeds travel as something heard and carried onward.
ALSO GROWS
shamʿo: His report, his fame.
שָׁמְעוֹ
This word appears beside “we heard” in the verse and shares the root שמע, joining the act of hearing to the report that travels.
shemuʿah: A report, tidings, something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
Its consonants share the root שמע; it names the report carried from one hearer to another.
רְחוֹקָה
reḥoqah
GROWS FROM
רחק
Be distant, be far away.
“a very distant land” in this verse is reḥoqah. The verse places רְחוֹקָה מְאֹד (reḥoqah meʾod, “very far”) beside the report the speakers say they have heard. The distance of a place and the reach of a report are different measures: what is far away can still be present through hearing.
ALSO GROWS
raḥoq: Far, distant.
רָחוֹק
This adjective shares the root רחק and names the distance the speakers claim separates them from the deeds they have heard about.
merḥaq: Distance, a distant place.
מֶרְחָק
This noun shares the root רחק and makes the verse’s contrast tangible: distance remains, while the report crosses it.
THE PATTERN
What is done becomes testimony, and testimony carries its meaning beyond the place where it happened.
The peoples shall hear and tremble; writhing shall grip the dwellers of Philistia.Recount his weight among the nations; his wonders among all peoples.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
The peoples shall hear and tremble; writhing shall grip the dwellers of Philistia.Joshua 9:9’s שָׁמַעְנוּ (shamaʿnu, “we heard”) and Exodus 15:14’s “shall hear” share the Hebrew root שמע (shamaʿ, “hear”). In both verses, what the LORD has done becomes a report that reaches people beyond the place where it happened.
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