What Does Joshua 21:5 Mean in the King James?
And the rest of the children of Kohath had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh, ten 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
Being named as the remainder does not mean being left without a place: the remainder receives ten cities.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a place for what remains: the Kohathite families receive ten cities from Ephraim, Dan, and half-Manasseh. What remains is named, counted, and given actual dwellings within a larger inheritance. The lot shows each place as a portion within a shared distribution.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what comes after an earlier allocation is negligible: these remaining families are still counted and given ten cities.
THE ROOT
מַטֵּה
matteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
To stretch out, extend, bend, or incline.
English makes tribe sound like an abstract group; Hebrew matteh can also mean a staff or rod, from the root for extending. Here, cities come from several named lineages: Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם, Efrayim, fruitful), Dan (דָּן, Dan, judge), and Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁה, Menasheh, causing to forget).
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch out, extend, or incline.
נָטָה
This root gives the tribal word an image of extension, like a line branching from a source.
matteh: Staff or rod; also tribe.
מַטֵּה
Numbers 17:2 uses this same word for a household’s rod, revealing the concrete image carried by the word translated tribe.
THE PATTERN
Shared inheritance becomes concrete provision through portions distributed across a community.
Command the children of Israel, that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them.And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle.And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.THE THREAD
Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod.The Hebrew word for tribe, matteh (מַטֵּה, staff or rod), is the same word used here for each household’s rod. The shared word links the cities apportioned from tribal inheritances to named branches of a larger family.
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