What Does Joshua 18:22 Mean in the King James?

And Beth-arabah, and Zemaraim, and Beth-el,

Joshua 18:22 · 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

Beth-el means “house of God,” so this boundary list locates a town whose name already carries a dwelling joined to the divine.

THE MEANING

Inheritance takes shape here through named places held within a defined boundary. Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, and Beth-el stand as distinct points in that geography, and Beth-el carries “house of God” in its name. The verse gives belonging both a location and a name.

THE ROOT

בֵּית־אֵל

Bethel

GROWS FROM

בית

bayit

House, dwelling, household.

In Beth-el, ⁨בֵּית⁩ (bet, “house of”) is the construct form of ⁨בַּיִת⁩ (bayit, “house”), joined to ⁨אֵל⁩ (El, “God”). The place-name makes dwelling part of the boundary itself: the land is described through places whose names carry meaning.

ALSO GROWS

batim: Houses; the plural of bayit.

בָּתִּים

The plural keeps the root’s concrete sense of dwellings visible within the word family.

Beth-lehem: House of bread.

בֵּית לֶחֶם

Like Beth-el, this place-name joins ⁨בית⁩ (bayit, “house”) to another word, showing how the shared root gives a place its first image.

THE PATTERN

Scripture makes place tangible by joining names to the boundaries that locate them.

And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

Genesis 28:19 · KJVThe place is identified through its name, Bethel, which carries “house of God.”

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:

Numbers 34:3 · KJVThe land becomes legible through a border traced across named places.

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;

Acts 17:26 · KJVHuman habitation is described as dwelling within determined bounds.

THE THREAD

And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

Genesis 28:19 · KJV

Genesis 28:19 sets Bethel beside the place’s earlier name, Luz, making the name itself part of how the place is read. Here, the boundary list names that same “house of God” within its geography.

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