What Does Joshua 1:16 Mean in the King James?
And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go.
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 a spoken yes move: what is commanded becomes action, and what is sent becomes a path.
THE MEANING
This verse names a response that does not stop at agreement: command is carried into action, and sending into movement. It speaks now wherever a received purpose asks the hands to do and the feet to go. The promise is whole because it joins what is done with where one is sent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sincere yes is complete even when it never becomes action or movement.
THE ROOT
שָׁלַח
shalach
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
To send forth, send away, release, or let go.
Joshua’s “send” is תִּשְׁלָחֵנוּ (tishlacheinu), from שׁלח (shalach, to send forth or release). The same seed appears in שָׁלוּחַ (shaluach, sent) and שִׁילֹחַ (Shiloach, sent forth): sending is a release into movement, which is why the reply joins being sent with going.
ALSO GROWS
shaluach: Sent; one who is sent.
שָׁלוּחַ
The people’s answer describes themselves as ready to become the ones sent into action.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of a watercourse, rendered Siloam in John 9:7.
שִׁילֹחַ
The name preserves the idea of what is sent forth, echoing this verse’s movement from sending to going.
shulchan: Table; an extended surface on which provision is set out.
שֻׁלְחָן
This branch carries the root’s image of what is extended outward, adding the sense that sending can open into provision.
THE PATTERN
A commission becomes real when the one who is sent answers it with movement.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.THE THREAD
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.The LORD’s “send” to Moses and Joshua’s “send” use the same root, שׁלח (shalach, send forth). Joshua’s people answer with the movement the word names: when sent, they go.
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