What Does Judges 2:6 Mean in the King James?
And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
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 verb translated “let the people go” is שָׁלַח (shalach, send forth), so release is the first movement into inheritance.
THE MEANING
Release opens a path into what is already apportioned. You move toward your own inheritance, and the gift becomes present through possession. Each person’s portion is particular, not interchangeable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that being sent away means being abandoned or left with nothing; here release begins the movement into what belongs to you.
THE ROOT
וַיְשַׁלַּח
wayeshallaḥ
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send, send forth, release, extend.
“let the people go” in this verse is wayeshallaḥ. English “let go” can sound like mere departure, but shalach names an active sending. Release has direction: the people are sent forth and move toward each person’s allotted inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: A person sent as an emissary.
שְׁלִיחַ
The branch makes the sending explicit: release is an act that sends someone onward.
shilluaḥ: A sending away or release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It shares the verse’s sense of release as a departure set in motion.
לְנַחֲלָתוֹ
lenachalato
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
Receive an allotted possession as an inheritance; assign an inheritance.
“His inheritance” is particular: not generic land, but each person’s allotted portion. The root’s verbal forms can describe receiving an inheritance or assigning one, holding giver and recipient within the same word family.
ALSO GROWS
naḥal: To receive an allotted possession.
נָחַל
It shows inheritance as something received and entered, not merely named.
hinchil: To assign or give as an inheritance.
הִנְחִיל
It brings the allotment behind each person’s movement into view.
לָרֶשֶׁת
lareshet
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
y-r-sh
Inherit or take possession; in causative forms, dispossess.
The verb translated “possess” also carries the sense of inheriting, so English separates what Hebrew holds together: receiving the inheritance and taking possession of it. The verse’s movement is from allotted gift to lived possession.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: To inherit or occupy as a possession.
יָרַשׁ
This is the verbal root behind “possess,” and it joins inheritance with entering the land.
morashah: A possession or heritage received as an inheritance.
מוֹרָשָׁה
It shows the same root describing the enduring possession that the verb brings into lived reality.
THE PATTERN
An allotted inheritance becomes lived possession through release and movement toward it.
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.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 same root, שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release), underlies Joshua sending the people forth and the demand to let the people go. In both verses release makes movement possible, opening a way toward a life the people can enter.
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