What Does Joshua 21:18 Mean in the King James?
Anathoth with her suburbs, and Almon with her suburbs; four cities.
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 allotment does not end at the city walls: its open margin belongs to the place of dwelling.
THE MEANING
A dwelling comes with the ground around it: center and margin belong to one provision. The verse counts the cities together with their surrounding open land, holding the inhabited place and the space that sustains it together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that what lies beyond a city’s built center is surplus; the surrounding commons are part of the allotment itself.
THE ROOT
מִגְרָשׁ
migrash
GROWS FROM
גרש
garash
Drive out, expel; מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) means open or pasture land around a town.
“suburbs” in this verse is migrash. The Hebrew word for the town’s open margin shares its consonants with גָּרַשׁ (garash), “to drive out” or “expel.” That root-family gives the word an echo of outward space: the city is named together with the land beyond its built center.
ALSO GROWS
migrash: Open land or pasture around a town.
מִגְרָשׁ
This is the word translated suburbs; it makes the surrounding ground part of the named allotment.
garash: To drive out or expel.
גָּרַשׁ
The shared root gives the margin an outward resonance, while the verse uses migrash for the open land belonging to the city.
עַלְמוֹן
ʿAlmōn
GROWS FROM
עלם
Conceal, hide; Almon is commonly connected with hiddenness.
The name עַלְמוֹן (ʿAlmōn), commonly linked to עָלַם (ʿālam), “to conceal,” carries the sense of a hidden place. Yet the verse names and counts Almon openly among the cities of the allotment, bringing the hidden-named place into view.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālam: To conceal or hide.
עָלַם
This verb supplies the hiddenness commonly heard in the place name Almon.
neʿlam: Hidden or concealed.
נֶעְלָם
This related form makes the name’s sense of hiddenness concrete.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling’s provision includes the open ground around it, joining the settlement and its sustaining space in one allotment.
And the cities shall they have to dwell in; and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts.But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.THE THREAD
And the cities shall they have to dwell in; and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts.This verse uses the same Hebrew word, מִגְרָשׁ (migrash), for the open ground around a city and names what that space serves. Joshua’s brief list opens into a whole place to dwell: the city and the land sustaining life around it are named together.
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