What Does Joshua 16:8 Mean in the King James?
The border went out from Tappuah westward unto the river Kanah; and the goings out thereof were at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim by their families.
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 Hebrew repeats the root for going out: the boundary goes forth, and its outlet reaches the sea.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a portion becoming visible through its route: the border travels west, follows the Kanah stream, and reaches the sea. The inheritance belongs to families, so its edges and its shared belonging are named together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that a boundary only takes away; here, the line makes the inheritance’s extent visible.
THE ROOT
יָצָא
yatsa
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, emerge, or come forth.
“went out” in this verse is yatsa. The verse uses this root for the border’s movement and again in “goings out” for its outlets. English can make these sound like separate descriptions, while Hebrew holds the boundary’s route and endpoint together as one act of going forth.
ALSO GROWS
totsa’ot: Places where something goes out; outlets or endpoints.
תּוֹצְאֹת
The repeated root makes the border’s end a point of emergence at the sea.
motsa: An emergence, outlet, or point of departure.
מוֹצָא
This related form carries the same idea of an endpoint as a place something comes out.
נַחֲלָה
naḥalah
GROWS FROM
נחל
To receive or take possession as an allotted share; the related noun נַחַל (naḥal) means “stream” or “wadi.”
The Hebrew word for stream and the word for inheritance share the consonants נחל: here the watercourse marks the reach of what the families receive. Flowing water and allotted possession sit in one sound-shape, a link English renders as unrelated words.
ALSO GROWS
naḥal: To inherit or receive as a possession.
נָחַל
The verse names the border as part of the share received by Ephraim’s families.
naḥal: A watercourse or valley stream.
נַחַל
The Kanah stream helps mark the inheritance’s western reach.
אֶפְרַיִם
Efrayim
GROWS FROM
פרה
To bear fruit or become fruitful.
Ephraim’s name carries the nature of fruitfulness. The verse names the family’s inheritance alongside that fruitful identity, joining a particular portion of land with the name of the people who receive it.
ALSO GROWS
parah: To bear fruit or become fruitful.
פָּרָה
This verb expresses the fruitfulness carried in Ephraim’s name.
peri: Fruit or produce.
פְּרִי
The fruit branch makes Ephraim’s name-nature concrete as what the land can yield.
THE PATTERN
An inheritance becomes visible through boundaries that trace its extent.
And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about.The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.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
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,“Gone out” uses the same Hebrew root, יצא (yatsa, “go out”), as Joshua’s border and its outlets. In both verses, a line goes forth until it reaches its full extent.
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