What Does Numbers 35:5 Mean?
You shall measure from outside the city, on the east side two thousand forearms, and on the south side two thousand forearms, and on the west side two thousand forearms, and on the north side two thousand forearms; and the city shall be in the midst, and this shall be to them the pasturelands of the cities.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; and the city shall be in the midst: this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.THE KEY
The city is not the edge of its world: it sits at the center of a measured expanse that belongs to it.
THE MEANING
A place of belonging has both a center and room beyond its walls. The city sits in the middle while the same distance is marked east, south, west, and north, making the surrounding ground part of its defined life. The verse presents the margin as assigned space, not leftover.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The city is all that matters; the land beyond its walls is unclaimed excess. Here, the outside is measured and made part of the city’s allotment.
THE ROOT
מִגְרְשֵׁי
migrashê
GROWS FROM
גרש
g-r-sh
The verbal form גָּרַשׁ (garash) means to drive out or expel; מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) means open common land around a town.
“pasturelands” in this verse is migrashê. The word for the city’s open margin is commonly connected to the root for driving out, giving it an edge-of-town sense. Yet here that outside space is measured and allotted: the margin belongs to the city’s life rather than being discarded ground.
ALSO GROWS
garash: To drive out or expel.
גָּרַשׁ
This verb carries the root’s sense of movement beyond a boundary, the same outward direction that marks the land around the city.
gerushah: A divorced woman; one sent away from a marriage.
גְּרוּשָׁה
This form preserves the root’s sense of being sent out, highlighting how the city’s margins are outside its walls but still deliberately included in its allotment.
וּמַדֹּתֶם
u-maddotem
GROWS FROM
מדד
m-d-d
The verbal form מָדַד (madad) means to measure or measure out.
The same measure is repeated in all four directions, giving the space a deliberate symmetry. Measurement makes the city’s reach legible: the center is held within an extent, rather than ending at the walls.
ALSO GROWS
madad: To measure.
מָדַד
The verb names the act that marks out the land around the city.
middah: A measure, size, or dimension.
מִדָּה
This related word shows measurement as a defined extent, echoing the space assigned on every side.
THE PATTERN
Belonging takes spatial form: the center, its limits, and the room around it are deliberately measured.
Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, and five hundred in breadth, square all around. And fifty cubits all around for its pasturelands.The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.And the city lies four-cornered, and its length is as great as its width. And he measures the city with the reed, twelve thousand stades. Its length and width and height are equal.THE THREAD
And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to settle in, with their pastures for our cattle.Joshua uses the same Hebrew word מִגְרָשׁ (migrash, open common land around a town) for the space accompanying the Levites’ cities. The margin becomes concrete: it is usable provision for cattle and other life, not a blank strip beyond the walls.
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