What Does Joshua 7:2 Mean in the King James?
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.
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
Ai is not a blank destination: הָעַי (ha-ʿAy, “the ruin”) lies beside בֵּית־אָוֶן (Beth-aven, “house of trouble”) and east of בֵּית־אֵל (Bethel, “house of God”).
THE MEANING
Unfamiliar ground becomes knowable through a sent encounter: the scouts go up and see the place before the larger movement continues. Even the map carries meaning in its names, so the terrain is never only a destination. The repeated seeing-word binds the command to its fulfillment.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
wayyishlach
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
Send forth, extend, release.
“sent” in this verse is wayyishlach. Here the root sends the scouts toward a specific place; elsewhere its range includes releasing and letting go. One Hebrew seed holds both the outward movement of sending and the unbinding of release.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away, dismissal, release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch shows that sending can carry the sense of letting someone go.
Shiloach: The name of the sent waters or conduit.
שִׁלֹחַ
Like the scouts, the waters move outward along a course toward another place.
shulchan: Table; provision set out for a household.
שֻׁלְחָן
The table carries the root’s extending movement into provision laid before others.
בֵּית־אָוֶן
Beth-aven
GROWS FROM
בית
bayit
House, household, dwelling.
“Beth-aven / Bethel” in this verse is Beth-aven. Both place names share בית (bayit, house), while their second elements differ: אָוֶן (ʾaven, trouble or iniquity) and אֵל (ʾEl, God). The coordinates place Ai beside one named house and east of the other, so the landscape speaks through its names as well as its directions.
ALSO GROWS
Beth-aven: House of trouble or iniquity.
בֵּית־אָוֶן
This is the neighboring place by which Ai is located.
Bethel: House of God.
בֵּית־אֵל
This is the eastern landmark that completes the verse’s named geography.
THE PATTERN
A small group is sent ahead to make the next place known before the larger movement reaches it.
And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.The verb translated “sent” here is שָׁלַח (shalach), the same root behind “Let my people go.” In Joshua, men are sent forth toward Ai; in Exodus, the people are to be released from Egypt, the same root holds sending out and letting go together.
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