What Does Joshua 13:16 Mean in the King James?

And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain by Medeba;

Joshua 13:16 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse makes the territory visible by naming its edges: the Hebrew word for “coast” can mean both the boundary and the land it encloses.

THE MEANING

This passage gives the territory a shape: its edge runs from Aroer along the Arnon, includes the city in the river, and reaches the plain by Medeba. The allotment becomes concrete through its named limits; the boundary and the land it holds belong to the same description.

THE ROOT

גְּבוּלָם

gebulam

GROWS FROM

גב״ל

g-b-l

To mark off or set a boundary.

⁨גְּבוּל⁩ (gebul) can name both a boundary and the territory it defines. So “coast” carries the edge and the land together: the allotment takes shape through the limits that hold it.

ALSO GROWS

gebul: Boundary, border, or territory.

גְּבוּל

The verse uses this word for the defined extent of the land.

higbalta: You shall set bounds (Exodus 19:12).

הִגְבַּלְתָּ

This verb from the same root makes the act of marking a limit explicit, echoing the verse’s named edges.

THE PATTERN

A portion becomes concrete when its boundaries are named.

Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)

Numbers 34:2 · KJVThe inheritance is described together with the limits that give the land its extent.

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

Psalm 16:6 · KJVThe boundary lines shape the speaker’s inheritance into a portion that can be received and recognized.

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Acts 17:26 · KJVThe verse extends the pattern to human habitation, whose bounds are also set.

THE THREAD

And Jordan was the border of it on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by the coasts thereof round about, according to their families.

Joshua 18:20 · KJV

The word translated “coast” here and “border” there is ⁨גְּבוּל⁩ (gebul), meaning boundary or territory. In both verses, the same root makes the inheritance legible through its edges.

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