What Does Judges 2:6 Mean?
And when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went, each man to his inheritance, to take hold of the land.
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 Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.THE KEY
The verb translated “let the people go” is שָׁלַח (shalach, send forth), so release is the first movement into inheritance.
THE MEANING
Release opens a path into what is already apportioned. You move toward your own inheritance, and the gift becomes present through possession. Each person’s portion is particular, not interchangeable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that being sent away means being abandoned or left with nothing; here release begins the movement into what belongs to you.
THE ROOT
וַיְשַׁלַּח
wayeshallaḥ
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send, send forth, release, extend.
“sent the people away” in this verse is wayeshallaḥ. English “let go” can sound like mere departure, but shalach names an active sending. Release has direction: the people are sent forth and move toward each person’s allotted inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: A person sent as an emissary.
שְׁלִיחַ
The branch makes the sending explicit: release is an act that sends someone onward.
shilluaḥ: A sending away or release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It shares the verse’s sense of release as a departure set in motion.
לְנַחֲלָתוֹ
lenachalato
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
Receive an allotted possession as an inheritance; assign an inheritance.
“His inheritance” is particular: not generic land, but each person’s allotted portion. The root’s verbal forms can describe receiving an inheritance or assigning one, holding giver and recipient within the same word family.
ALSO GROWS
naḥal: To receive an allotted possession.
נָחַל
It shows inheritance as something received and entered, not merely named.
hinchil: To assign or give as an inheritance.
הִנְחִיל
It brings the allotment behind each person’s movement into view.
לָרֶשֶׁת
lareshet
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
y-r-sh
Inherit or take possession; in causative forms, dispossess.
“take hold of the land” in this verse is lareshet. The verb translated “possess” also carries the sense of inheriting, so English separates what Hebrew holds together: receiving the inheritance and taking possession of it. The verse’s movement is from allotted gift to lived possession.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: To inherit or occupy as a possession.
יָרַשׁ
This is the verbal root behind “possess,” and it joins inheritance with entering the land.
morashah: A possession or heritage received as an inheritance.
מוֹרָשָׁה
It shows the same root describing the enduring possession that the verb brings into lived reality.
THE PATTERN
An allotted inheritance becomes lived possession through release and movement toward it.
And the LORD said to Abram, Go away from your land, from your land of birth, and from your father's house, to the land I will let you see.The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.By trust Abraham, called to go out into a place he would receive as an inheritance, heard and responded, and went out, not knowing where he was going.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The same root, שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release), underlies Joshua sending the people forth and the demand to let the people go. In both verses release makes movement possible, opening a way toward a life the people can enter.
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