What Does 1 Chronicles 6:68 Mean in the King James?
And Jokmeam with her suburbs, and Beth-horon with her suburbs,
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
A city’s surrounding open ground belongs to the place as surely as its inhabited center.
THE MEANING
This verse holds each city together with the open ground around it: what lies beyond the settled center still belongs to the place. Jokmeam (יָקְמְעָם, Yoqmeʿām) is commonly read as “let the people rise,” giving the name a sense of a people standing up. Beth-horon (בֵּית־חוֹרֹן, Bêt-Ḥôrōn) means “house of Horon”; Horon’s name has no certain Hebrew derivation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place is only its occupied center; the land beyond its walls does not belong to it.
THE ROOT
מִגְרָשֶׁיהָ
migrāšêhā
GROWS FROM
גרש
To drive out, expel, or send away.
“suburbs” in this verse is migrāšêhā. The Hebrew noun מִגְרָשׁ (migrāš), open ground around a city, is linked to גָּרַשׁ (garash), “drive out.” The repeated phrase holds the city and its surrounding margin together as one allotted place.
ALSO GROWS
migrāš: Open ground or pastureland around a city.
מִגְרָשׁ
This is the singular form behind “suburbs,” naming the space at the city’s edge.
gerush: Expulsion or being driven out.
גֵּרוּשׁ
This related form preserves the root’s sense of what is sent beyond a boundary.
יָקְמְעָם
Yoqmeʿām
GROWS FROM
קום
To rise, stand, or become established.
Jokmeam is commonly understood as “let the people rise,” joining קוּם (qum, rise) with עָם (ʿam, people). Beside the city’s open ground, its name gives the place a nature of a people standing up.
ALSO GROWS
qum: To rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root sense carried in the town’s name.
heqim: To raise up or establish.
הֵקִים
This causative branch adds the sense of a people being set upright.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling’s allotted life includes the open ground around its inhabited center.
And the cities shall they have to dwell in; and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts.But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.THE THREAD
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.Leviticus uses the same Hebrew word, מִגְרָשׁ (migrāš), for the open ground around the cities and says it cannot be sold. The margin is part of the community’s lasting possession, deepening “with her suburbs” into a picture of a whole place, not just its center.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us