What Does Joshua 10:6 Mean in the King James?
And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.
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 rescue begins with a hand that refuses to slacken and stays engaged before deliverance is complete.
THE MEANING
When danger closes around you, this verse gives the threatened person an unedited plea: stay with me, come quickly, deliver me, help me. Need is spoken plainly, and the requested help is a hand that remains engaged.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a plea for rescue must be hidden until you can manage alone dissolves here: the danger and need are named without disguise.
THE ROOT
תֶּרֶף
teref
GROWS FROM
רפה
To loosen, slacken, or let drop; release.
“Slack” in this verse is teref. תֶּרֶף is an inflected form of רפה, with the root’s final ה absent in this form. The same root describes a hand loosening its hold and a person growing remiss in work: the plea is for help that does not let go.
ALSO GROWS
rāphāh: To loosen, slacken, or let drop.
רָפָה
This is the verbal form of the root behind תֶּרֶף; the plea asks Joshua not to release his hand.
mithrappeh: One who is lax or remiss, as in Proverbs 18:9.
מִתְרַפֶּה
This form preserves the root consonants ר־פ־ה and shows the same letting-go as a failure to keep acting.
הוֹשִׁיעָה
hoshi'ah
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver, bring out of danger, or come to safety.
The cry translated “save us” asks for deliverance from an immediate threat. Joshua’s name, יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshua, “YHWH delivers”), carries the same root, so the plea and the name echo one another.
ALSO GROWS
yeshu'ah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun carries the same root consonants ישע and gives a name to what the Gibeonites are asking for.
Yehoshua: YHWH delivers.
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Joshua’s name contains the deliverance root at the center of the request addressed to him.
וְעָזְרֵנוּ
ve'ozrenu
GROWS FROM
עזר
To help, support, or aid.
The verse names both deliverance and help: being brought out of danger and receiving support within it. The same root appears in the psalmist’s “my help,” which traces that aid to the maker of heaven and earth.
ALSO GROWS
ʿezer: Help or a helper.
עֵזֶר
This noun makes the support requested here a presence that aids someone in need.
ʿazar: To help or assist.
עָזַר
This verb shares the root consonants עזר and names help as an action, not merely a wish.
THE PATTERN
Rescue takes shape through support that reaches the endangered person, not through concern left at a distance.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?THE THREAD
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.The word translated “help” in Joshua 10:6 comes from עזר, the same root behind the psalmist’s “my help.” The request for a human hand opens onto help traced to the maker of heaven and earth.
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