What Does Joshua 21:27 Mean in the King James?

And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Beesh-terah with her suburbs; two cities.

Joshua 21:27 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The refuge is a receiving place: even the slayer is held beyond vengeance until judgment can speak.

THE MEANING

A place receives the person named here as a slayer and keeps that life within a boundary. The harm is not erased; protection gives judgment time to establish what happened before retaliation closes the case. Refuge keeps a life open while judgment is pending.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a life marked by killing must be surrendered immediately to vengeance before the case is heard.

THE ROOT

מִקְלָט

miqlāṭ

GROWS FROM

קלט

q-l-ṭ

Receive, take in, absorb.

The Hebrew word for refuge belongs to a root of receiving or absorbing. It pictures safety as being taken in behind a boundary, which is what protects the slayer from immediate retaliation.

ALSO GROWS

qālaṭ: Receive, take in, absorb.

קָלַט

This verbal sense makes refuge a receiving place.

qelita: Reception, absorption.

קְלִיטָה

The same consonants continue to carry the sense of being taken in.

מְנַשֶּׁה

Menasheh

GROWS FROM

נשה

n-sh-h

Forget; cause to forget.

Manasseh’s name carries the sense “causing forgetfulness,” and the verse places Golan in Manasseh’s territory. The refuge keeps the slayer alive without declaring the killing forgotten: shelter and judgment remain together.

ALSO GROWS

nashah: Forget.

נָשָׁה

This is the verb associated with the name’s meaning.

nashani: He caused me to forget.

נַשַּׁנִי

Genesis 41:51 uses this form when explaining the name Manasseh.

THE PATTERN

A refuge receives life in danger and prevents the threat from having the final word.

And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.

Numbers 35:12 · KJVThe refuge keeps the avenger from deciding the manslayer’s fate before the congregation hears the case.

And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;

Deuteronomy 19:4 · KJVThe city receives someone whose killing was unintentional and preserves their life.

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Hebrews 6:18 · KJVThe image of fleeing for refuge becomes a place to hold on to hope when danger closes in.

THE THREAD

And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.

Numbers 35:12 · KJV

Joshua names Golan as a city of refuge; Numbers explains its force: the avenger cannot kill the manslayer before the congregation hears the case. The shared word ⁨מִקְלָט⁩ (miqlāṭ, refuge) makes the connection concrete: refuge receives the fugitive while judgment remains pending.

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