What Does Deuteronomy 3:19 Mean in the King James?
But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, (for I know that ye have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you;
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
The verse makes staying part of the movement: what does not advance still has a city already given.
THE MEANING
The verse holds movement and care together: while some move forward, the people and provision entrusted to them remain in cities already given. Staying has a real place in the unfolding work; it is not erased by someone else’s movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only those moving forward are part of the work; those who remain also have a place within it.
THE ROOT
יֵשְׁבוּ
yēšəvū
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ב
y-sh-b
To sit, dwell, or remain.
The Hebrew behind “abide” carries the concrete sense of sitting and dwelling. The families and herds have a settled presence in actual cities, while the movement described around them continues.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, dwell, or remain.
יָשַׁב
It is the verb behind “abide,” joining remaining with the image of being settled in a place.
moshav: A dwelling place, settlement, or seat.
מוֹשָׁב
This related noun makes visible the place implied by the verse: abiding is rooted in a location.
yoshev: One who dwells or sits; an inhabitant.
יֹשֵׁב
The root can describe not only staying, but the people who inhabit a place.
THE PATTERN
A shared work can advance because its parts occupy distinct places, including the places where some remain.
Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them;See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.THE THREAD
Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them;The same root, י־ש־ב (yashab, to dwell or remain), describes the families and herds staying in place while others cross ahead. Joshua makes clear that remaining and going forward are coordinated parts of the same movement.
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