What Does 1 Chronicles 6:62 Mean in the King James?
And to the sons of Gershom throughout their families out of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Gershom’s families receive thirteen cities across four tribes, making belonging a network of places rather than one territory.
THE MEANING
The verse makes belonging tangible: one family line has thirteen named places among several tribes. Shared life is held across communities, with each place counted rather than left abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that belonging requires a single territory of one’s own: here, one family is placed across several tribes.
THE ROOT
מַטֶּה
matteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
To stretch out, extend, or incline; matteh is commonly linked with this root.
The Hebrew word translated “tribe” is also used for a staff or rod, and is linked with the idea of extension. In this verse, the allotment reaches across several tribal territories, giving Gershom’s families a place within the wider people.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch out, extend, or incline
נָטָה
This verb echoes the way the allotment extends through the territories named in the verse.
matteh: Staff, rod; tribe or tribal division
מַטֶּה
The same word holds both a concrete object and a social division, bringing the verse’s geography into view as a series of distinct territories.
THE PATTERN
A community’s shared life is sustained through concrete provision distributed across many places.
Command the children of Israel, that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them.All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs.Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.THE THREAD
And the cities which ye shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel: from them that have many ye shall give many; but from them that have few ye shall give few: every one shall give of his cities unto the Levites according to his inheritance which he inheriteth.This verse describes how the cities come from each tribe’s own inheritance, in proportion to what it holds. Here, that shared arrangement becomes specific: thirteen cities from four tribal territories.
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