What Does Joshua 15:2 Mean in the King James?
And their south border was from the shore of the salt sea, from the bay that looketh southward:
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 “bay” is literally a “tongue” in Hebrew, so the border begins at the sea’s own projection facing the dry south.
THE MEANING
This verse makes the southern limit visible through landscape: the salt sea, its tongue-shaped inlet, and the dry southern reach. The line is located by the shape of the water and the direction it faces.
THE ROOT
לָשׁוֹן
lashon
GROWS FROM
לשן
Tongue; also speech or language, and a tongue-shaped projection.
The English “bay” names a coastal feature, while the Hebrew gives it a body shape: the sea has a tongue facing south. The border’s landmark is the water’s own projecting form.
ALSO GROWS
lashon: The physical tongue; also speech or language.
לָשׁוֹן
One word holds the body part and what it articulates, giving the sea’s “tongue” a vivid shape.
leshon hayam: A projecting part of the sea described as a tongue.
לְשׁוֹן הַיָּם
Isaiah uses this image directly, confirming that the “bay” is a tongue-like extension of the water.
נֶגְבָּה
negbah
GROWS FROM
נגב
Dryness or parched land; the Negeb is the dry southern country.
“southward” in this verse is negbah. The direction word carries a landscape resonance: the Negeb is the name of the southern dry country, and the root is associated with dryness. The border runs from the sea’s tongue toward the dry land.
ALSO GROWS
negeb: The southern region, associated with dry country.
נֶגֶב
The place name shares the direction word’s consonants, keeping the terrain inside the idea of south.
nagab: To be dry or parched.
נָגַב
This dry-root sense adds a landscape echo to the verse’s southward line.
THE PATTERN
A region becomes legible when its limits are anchored to named landmarks and directions.
Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward:Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.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;THE THREAD
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word לָשׁוֹן (lashon, “tongue”) for a projection of the Egyptian sea. That makes Joshua’s “bay” image concrete: the border takes its bearings from the sea’s tongue-like shape.
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