What Does Psalm 78:55 Mean in the King James?
He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
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 portion falls by a measured line, but the line is drawn only after other nations are driven out.
THE MEANING
Here, belonging takes concrete form: a measured inheritance and tents in which a people can settle. Yet the same sentence says other nations are driven out before that dwelling is made possible. Inheritance and dispossession remain joined in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that calling land a gift or inheritance erases the people driven out to make the settlement possible.
THE ROOT
וַיַּפִּילֵם
wayyappilem
GROWS FROM
נפל
n-p-l
To fall; in the causative form, to cause to fall, cast down, or allot, as when a lot falls.
The verb translated “divided” is built from the root for falling: the inheritance is apportioned as something that falls to its recipients. That same root joins allocation with the force of casting down, keeping the verse’s settlement and displacement close together.
ALSO GROWS
naphal: To fall or come down.
נָפַל
This is the root’s basic verb, revealing the image beneath the act of allotment.
hippil: To cause to fall, cast down, or allot.
הִפִּיל
This causative form is the seed of the verse’s “divided”; a share falls to its recipients as others are driven out.
חֶבֶל
chevel
GROWS FROM
חבל
ḥ-b-l
A cord or binding; a cord used to measure and mark a portion.
“line” in this verse is chevel. The inheritance is not an undefined expanse: it is marked by a cord. The same cord-and-falling image appears in Psalm 16:6, where the lines fall to the speaker in pleasant places.
ALSO GROWS
chevel: A cord, measuring line, or measured tract.
חֶבֶל
Here the cord marks the boundary of an allotted inheritance.
chavalim: Cords or lines.
חֲבָלִים
This plural form is the “lines” in Psalm 16:6, where the lines fall to the speaker.
וַיַּשְׁכֵּן
vayyashken
GROWS FROM
שכן
sh-k-n
To dwell or settle; in this form, to cause someone to dwell.
“dwell” in this verse is vayyashken. The tribes are not only assigned a portion; they are settled in it. The same root forms מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan), a dwelling place or tabernacle, and שָׁכֵן (shachen), a neighbor, dwelling is the seed beneath both habitation and nearness.
ALSO GROWS
mishkan: Dwelling place or tabernacle.
מִשְׁכָּן
It carries the same root of settled habitation found in the tribes’ tents.
shachen: Neighbor, one who dwells nearby.
שָׁכֵן
The root of dwelling also gives the word for someone who lives near another.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays dwelling as a bounded, appointed place rather than a vague condition.
When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;THE THREAD
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.This verse pairs the same נפל (naphal, fall) root with חֶבֶל (chevel, cord or line): the lines fall to the speaker. Psalm 78 describes a people apportioned by a boundary; Psalm 16 gives the same image as a personally received inheritance.
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