What Does Joshua 18:21 Mean in the King James?
Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, and Beth-hoglah, and the valley of Keziz,
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 word for “tribe” also means “staff,” picturing Benjamin’s lineage extended into named ground.
THE MEANING
Belonging takes concrete shape here: a people is named as a tribe and located through its families in towns and a valley. Identity, kinship, and ground sit together in one map.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the idea that belonging is only an inner identity detached from place: here, kinship is named alongside specific towns and a valley.
THE ROOT
מַטֵּה
matteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
Stretch out, extend, incline
English “tribe” sounds like a fixed category, but matteh also means a staff or rod and is linked to natah, “to extend.” The verse’s lineage is connected to an image of extension, made concrete in the families and places named here.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch out, extend, or incline
נָטָה
This verb gives the root’s sense of extension, beneath the word used here for Benjamin’s tribe.
matteh: Staff, rod, or tribe
מַטֵּה
The same word can name both a rod and a people-group, linking the verse’s kinship language with an image of a line extending outward.
THE PATTERN
Belonging becomes visible as named people are placed within specific land and boundaries.
Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.And the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan, and the border thereof. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and the villages thereof.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
Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod.The Hebrew word matteh, translated “tribe” in Joshua 18:21, is also translated “rod” here. In Numbers, each rod bears a leader’s name; the shared word makes Benjamin’s town list feel like a lineage extended into places, not just a set of map labels.
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