What Does Joshua 19:6 Mean in the King James?

And Beth-lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities and their villages:

Joshua 19:6 · 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-lebaoth means “house of lionesses,” so this count of settlements carries a living image inside one of its names.

THE MEANING

This line holds a region as a web of named places: thirteen cities and the villages around them. Beth-lebaoth still means “house of lionesses,” so one name preserves an image of what is at home there.

THE ROOT

וְחַצְרֵיהֶן

wəḥaṣērêhen

GROWS FROM

חצר

ḥ-ṣ-r

Enclosed court or settlement; the word’s range holds both.

The word rendered “villages” is ḥāṣēr, whose range includes an enclosed court and a settlement. Hebrew lets these communities carry the image of bounded dwelling; elsewhere the same word names a tabernacle court.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāṣēr: Courtyard, enclosure, or settlement.

חָצֵר

This form shows how the word can describe both an enclosed space and a place where people dwell.

Ḥaṣērōt: A place-name built from the same word for courts or settlements.

חֲצֵרוֹת

The place-name keeps the dwelling image in view, just as Beth-lebaoth carries “house of lionesses” within its name.

THE PATTERN

A place-name can preserve the quality or encounter associated with that place.

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 · KJVBethel means “house of God,” carrying the place’s nature in its name.

And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

Exodus 15:23 · KJVMarah means “bitter,” and the verse directly links the name to the quality of the waters.

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

1 Samuel 7:12 · KJVEbenezer means “stone of help,” preserving the meaning of the moment in the place-name.

THE THREAD

And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it.

Leviticus 6:16 · KJV

Joshua’s “villages” translates ḥāṣēr, the same Hebrew word rendered “court” here. One word holds both a settlement and an enclosed courtyard, joining the surrounding places of dwelling to the image of a bounded space.

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