What Does Joshua 15:19 Mean in the King James?
Who answered, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs.
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 requested blessing takes the concrete form of springs, so dry inheritance becomes a place that can sustain life.
THE MEANING
You can recognize what has been given and still name the condition it lacks. Here, the answer reaches both the upper and lower springs, meeting the need across the land. The verse holds gratitude and further asking together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that gratitude requires silence about what is still missing: she names what she has received and asks for the water the land lacks.
THE ROOT
גֻּלֹּת
gullot
GROWS FROM
גלל
galal
To roll; the related noun can picture something round, gathered like a basin or pool.
The Hebrew gullot can mean pools or basins as well as springs. The image is of gathered water sources within the dry land: the request is for the water that lets the inheritance sustain life.
ALSO GROWS
gullah: A basin or pool; the singular form related to gullot.
גֻּלָּה
It makes the requested springs tangible as places where water is gathered.
gal: A heap or wave, from the same rolling root.
גַּל
It echoes water gathered or rising into a visible mass, rather than an abstract supply.
נֶגֶב
negev
GROWS FROM
נגב
nagav
To be dry or parched; the word also names the dry southern region.
“south land” in this verse is negev. The place itself carries the sense of dryness, which makes the request for springs precise: the missing gift answers the land’s defining condition.
ALSO GROWS
nagav: To become dry or parched.
נָגַב
It exposes the need beneath the name of the land.
negev: The south or dry region.
נֶגֶב
It links the setting directly to the springs requested for it.
בְּרָכָה
berakah
GROWS FROM
ברך
barak
To bless; the root also carries the sense of bending the knee.
The blessing she asks for has a concrete shape: springs are named, then given. The word’s family holds blessing close to the bodily image of the knee.
ALSO GROWS
barak: To bless or kneel.
בָּרַךְ
It shows the root’s connection between blessing and a bodily posture.
berek: The knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
It preserves the root’s embodied image alongside the bestowed blessing.
THE PATTERN
A place becomes life-sustaining when water reaches the dry ground within it.
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.THE THREAD
For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;This verse folds fountains and depths into the shape of a good land. Joshua’s line reveals the same structure at intimate scale: the granted land becomes sustaining when its springs are opened too.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us