What Does Numbers 34:18 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land by inheritance.
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 land is apportioned as inheritance: the appointed prince gives a received share concrete form.
THE MEANING
A rightful share is not vague: it takes shape through named responsibility and actual division. What is received as inheritance becomes concrete when each tribe is given its portion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that belonging must be seized alone or remain undefined; here, inheritance is apportioned through an entrusted representative.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָה
nachalah
GROWS FROM
נחל
To inherit or possess, or to cause someone to inherit; to assign a possession.
The Hebrew verb behind “divide … by inheritance” carries the sense of causing someone to inherit. The division gives shape to a received possession: each tribe’s share is part of an inheritance, not just a boundary drawn across land.
ALSO GROWS
nachal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as something received and possessed, the action at the heart of this verse.
hinchil: To cause to inherit; to assign as a possession.
הִנְחִיל
This causative form illuminates the verse’s division: the appointed leaders make each tribe’s inheritance tangible.
nachalah: Inheritance; an allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
The noun names the share that the division brings into view.
נָשִׂיא
nasi
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
The word for “prince” grows from a root meaning to lift or carry; it can describe one elevated to lead. The verse places this leader inside the work of assigning inheritance, linking an elevated role with the carrying out of the people’s shared portion.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This verb makes the root’s physical sense visible and gives depth to the leader’s elevated place.
massa: A load or burden; also a pronouncement.
מַשָּׂא
This noun from the same root echoes the weight carried by one entrusted with responsibility.
THE PATTERN
An inheritance becomes visible when a share is assigned within a shared whole.
And these are the countries which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance to them.And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.THE THREAD
And these are the countries which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance to them.Numbers’ phrase “to divide … by inheritance” and Joshua’s “distributed for inheritance” use forms of the Hebrew root נחל (n-ḥ-l; nachal), to inherit or cause to inherit. Joshua makes visible what this verse names: the inheritance takes shape as leaders distribute the shared land into portions.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us