What Does Joshua 8:35 Mean in the King James?
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.
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
Completeness and inclusion meet here: every word is read to a gathering that includes those most easily left at the edges.
THE MEANING
No word of the instruction is left unread before the people. Women, children, and resident strangers are named among those who hear it, so the whole gathering stands within its reach. You are part of that hearing now; the word is not reserved for those at the center.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the instruction belongs only to Israelite men: women, children, and resident strangers are included in the hearing.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew word can name both what is spoken and the matter or thing itself, so instruction carries substance into shared life. Here, none of that substance is withheld from the gathered people.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke; uttered.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken action and the word share a root: the instruction becomes present as it is voiced before the people.
devarim: Words, matters, or things.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the sense of words and matters together, echoing the verse’s insistence that not one part of the instruction is omitted.
קָרָא
qārāʾ
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־א
q-r-ʾ
To call, proclaim, or read aloud.
“read” in this verse is qārāʾ. The verb for reading also carries the sense of calling or proclaiming. In this verse, the words are called out before the whole gathering, making the reading a shared act of hearing.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call, proclaim, or read aloud.
קָרָא
The same verb holds reading alongside calling, bringing the instruction into the hearing of those gathered.
miqra: A reading or convocation.
מִקְרָא
This related word carries both public reading and assembly, joining the voiced word with the gathered people.
THE PATTERN
Instruction becomes shared when it is voiced before the gathered community, with all who are present included in its hearing.
Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.THE THREAD
When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.The verb for “read” is קָרָא (qārāʾ, call or proclaim), the same root used for Joshua’s reading here. Moses’ instruction and Joshua’s reading share one calling voice, placing the word in the hearing of the whole gathering.
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