What Does Joshua 17:5 Mean in the King James?
And there fell ten portions to Manasseh, beside the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side Jordan;
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
What “falls” to Manasseh is not a loose share: the Hebrew calls its portions “cords,” turning inheritance into measured lines on the ground.
THE MEANING
Your share can be real and specific without being one continuous field. The verse names ten portions beside Gilead and Bashan across the Jordan, keeping distinct places within one inheritance. Its picture of receiving is measured and particular, not vague.
THE ROOT
חֲבָלִים
ḥăbālîm
GROWS FROM
חבל
ḥ-b-l
Cord or rope; by extension, a measured territory or allotment.
The word translated “portions” literally means “cords” or “measuring lines.” Inheritance takes shape as measured stretches of ground, not an indistinct expanse.
ALSO GROWS
ḥevel: Cord or rope
חֶבֶל
A cord can mark or measure a stretch of ground, making the land image visible inside “portion.”
ḥevel: A district, territory, or allotted share
חֶבֶל
This land sense shows how a measured line comes to name the bounded portion itself.
מְנַשֶּׁה
Mənashsheh
GROWS FROM
נשה
n-sh-h
To forget; in the name’s form, causing to forget.
Joseph explains the name Manasseh with the words, “God…hath made me forget all my toil” (Genesis 41:51). The ten portions here belong to a name that already carries the movement of toil receding from memory.
ALSO GROWS
nashah: To forget
נָשָׁה
Joseph uses this root when he names Manasseh after the passing of his toil from memory.
Mənashsheh: Manasseh; causing to forget
מְנַשֶּׁה
The tribe receiving these portions bears the name shaped by that root.
THE PATTERN
Inheritance takes shape through measured boundaries, with its lines falling into a place rather than remaining abstract.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man’s inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.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
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.Psalm 16:6 uses the same Hebrew noun חֲבָלִים (ḥăbālîm, “cords” or “lines”) and the same root נפל (n-p-l, “fall”) as Joshua 17:5. The psalm makes explicit what the allotment image holds: the lines that fall to someone can be received as a goodly heritage.
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