What Does Deuteronomy 31:7 Mean in the King James?
And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.
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
Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Mosheh, “drawn out”) entrusts the charge to Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Yehoshua, “YHWH delivers”): courage is the steadiness that carries a whole people into their inheritance.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you at the threshold of a responsibility larger than your own arrival: strength and courage take shape as helping others enter their share. The promise is already spoken, yet its becoming lived inheritance still passes through your part in carrying others forward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that courage is measured by standing alone; here courage is bound to whether others can receive their share.
THE ROOT
תַּנְחִילֶנָּה
tanḥilenāh
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or possess; in a causative form, to grant a share as an inheritance.
“cause them to inherit” in this verse is tanḥilenāh. The causative form gives Joshua a role in bringing the people into possession. Yet the root keeps the receiving with the people, so leadership serves an inheritance already promised rather than inventing one.
ALSO GROWS
naḥalah: An inherited share or possession.
נַחֲלָה
This noun names what the people receive: their own share of the promised land.
nāḥal: To receive or take possession as an inheritance.
נָחַל
The shared root joins Joshua’s role in bringing the gift to the people’s act of receiving it.
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Yehoshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-š-ʿ
To deliver, bringing a person out of constriction toward spaciousness; the name joins this root with the divine name, YHWH.
“Joshua” in this verse is Yehoshua. Yehoshua carries the nature of deliverance in his name: YHWH delivers. Beside the charge to bring the people into their inheritance, the name frames deliverance as a passage shared by the whole people.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance or rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
The noun makes visible the deliverance carried in Joshua’s name and commission.
moshia: One who delivers.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form shows the active branch of the same root: deliverance reaches people through one who leads them out.
אֱמָץ
ʾĕmāṣ
GROWS FROM
אמץ
ʾ-m-ṣ
To be firm or strong; to strengthen.
This root names firmness rather than a resource added from outside. Paired with “be strong,” courage becomes steadiness for an assigned passage, tethered to what others receive.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōmeṣ: Courage, firmness, or strength.
אֹמֶץ
The noun gives the quality named in the charge a shape of inner firmness.
ʾimmēṣ: To strengthen or make firm.
אִמֵּץ
This causative form links courage with strengthening another, echoing a task whose outcome belongs to the people.
THE PATTERN
A promise becomes a people’s inheritance through courage used to carry others into their share.
And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.THE THREAD
Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.Joshua 1:6 repeats the same command to be strong and courageous, then ties it directly to dividing the land as an inheritance. The repetition makes the purpose plain: courage is joined to the work of bringing a people into their promised share.
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