What Does Joshua 18:28 Mean in the King James?
And Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath, and Kirjath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to 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 inheritance makes wholeness tangible: Jerusalem itself is named among Benjamin’s allotted places.
THE MEANING
Inheritance takes visible form in named places, villages, and a people. Jerusalem, whose name carries the language of wholeness, stands within this concrete portion.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָה
naḥalah
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To receive as an allotted possession; to inherit.
English makes inheritance sound abstract, but this word names a portion that can be located and received. The same consonants also appear in a Hebrew word for a stream or wadi, placing the idea of an inherited channel beside the idea of an inherited portion.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
This verb shares the seed of נַחֲלָה, showing inheritance as something received and held.
naḥal: A stream or wadi.
נַחַל
This other branch with the same consonants gives inheritance a concrete, channel-like resonance in the verse’s named territory.
יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the sh-l-m root associated with shalom, wholeness, and its -ayim ending gives the name a dual form. Here that name stands among the places of an actual inheritance, so wholeness is located within the portion itself.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch of sh-l-m supplies the language of wholeness carried in the city’s name.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes explicit the completeness held in the same root as shalom.
THE PATTERN
Inheritance becomes visible as a received portion with a place and a people.
Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.THE THREAD
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.The Hebrew word translated “heritage” here is נַחֲלָה (naḥalah), from the same root as “inheritance” in Joshua. Two English words open onto one idea: a portion received and held as one’s own.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us