What Does Joshua 1:3 Mean in the King James?
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.
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
In Hebrew, the foot’s tread and the way share a root: the gift is met as a path beneath your feet.
THE MEANING
The verse names the ground as already given, while the foot still has to meet it. The promise becomes a lived path in the place you actually tread. “As I said unto Moses” holds this step within a word already spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that nothing is given until you have achieved it: here, the giving comes before the tread.
THE ROOT
תִּדְרֹךְ
tidrok
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread, step, or travel.
The word for your foot’s tread belongs to the same root family as the word for a way. The place underfoot and the path through it are joined in the language: what is given becomes a way you walk.
ALSO GROWS
derek: Way, road, or path.
דֶּרֶךְ
The shared root connects each tread with the way those steps make and follow.
midrakh: Footstep or place trodden.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch brings the promised place into direct contact with the foot that treads it.
נְתַתִּיו
netativ
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“given” in this verse is netativ. The verse names the giving as already done, even while the walking remains ahead. The root can also mean to set or place, so the gift is something put before the one who walks.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This noun keeps the root’s act of giving visible as something received.
netinah: Giving or the act of giving.
נְתִינָה
This branch makes the giving itself part of the word family behind the promise.
THE PATTERN
A spoken gift becomes tangible through embodied movement: what is given is met where the feet actually go.
Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!THE THREAD
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.Joshua’s word for “tread” and Psalm’s word for “way” share the Hebrew root דרך (darak), meaning to tread or travel. The same root joins the ground given beneath the foot with the way ordered through each step.
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