What Does Joshua 15:26 Mean in the King James?

Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,

Joshua 15:26 · 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.

THE KEY

The place names carry more than geography: Shema holds hearing, and Moladah holds birth.

THE MEANING

Your life takes shape in particular places. Within these names, Shema carries hearing and response, while Moladah carries birth, so place holds more than a label. Even a list of locations can speak of listening and becoming.

THE ROOT

שְׁמַע

Shemaʿ

GROWS FROM

שמע

sh-m-ʿ

Hear, listen, heed, respond.

English leaves Shema as a place-name, while its Hebrew root also names the act of hearing and responding. The name carries a living action inside a location.

ALSO GROWS

shamaʿ: Hear, listen, heed.

שָׁמַע

This verb shows the action carried in the name: hearing can include response, not just sound.

shemuʿah: Report, news, a thing heard.

שְׁמוּעָה

The same root can name what is heard, linking the act of listening with the message received.

מוֹלָדָה

Moladah

GROWS FROM

ילד

y-l-d

Bear, bring forth, give birth.

Moladah is linked to the Hebrew root for bearing and bringing forth, so the place-name carries a resonance of birth. The list preserves that meaning beneath the familiar sound of a location.

ALSO GROWS

yalad: Bear, give birth, bring forth.

יָלַד

This is the root verb beneath Moladah’s birth-related sense.

yeled: Child.

יֶלֶד

The same root names the one brought forth, making the place-name echo birth and the life that follows.

THE PATTERN

Scripture treats hearing as the opening of response, not as sound alone.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:4 · KJVThe verse begins with the same root as Shema, making hearing the reader’s entry into its declaration.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

John 10:27 · KJVHearing moves into following, showing response as part of the pattern.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

James 1:22 · KJVThe verse distinguishes hearing that remains sound from hearing that takes shape in action.

THE THREAD

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:4 · KJV

Shema echoes the Hebrew ⁨שָׁמַע⁩ (shamaʿ, hear and respond), the root behind “Hear” in this verse. Deuteronomy makes hearing an active encounter with the LORD’s oneness, opening the place-name into a living posture of response.

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