What Does Numbers 35:7 Mean?
So all the cities you shall give the Levites shall be forty-eight cities; you shall give them with their pasturelands.
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
So all the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities: them shall ye give with their suburbs.THE KEY
A city’s gift includes the open land around it; provision reaches past the walls.
THE MEANING
The verse holds dwelling and surrounding land together: the Levites receive forty-eight cities with the open ground around them. Their service has a material place within the community’s shared inheritance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that service requires material exclusion is undone here: the allotment includes both places to dwell and the land around them.
THE ROOT
וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן
u-migrasheihen
GROWS FROM
גרש
Drive out or expel; מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) means open land around a town.
“pasturelands” in this verse is u-migrasheihen. מִגְרָשׁ (migrash, open land around a town) is traditionally linked to גָּרַשׁ (garash, drive out or expel), perhaps carrying the image of space cleared beyond a settlement. Here the city and its surrounding land are given together, so the allotment extends beyond the walls.
ALSO GROWS
garash: Drive out, expel
גָּרַשׁ
This verb is the traditional root link behind migrash and gives an image of space opened beyond the town.
migrash: Open land or pasture around a city
מִגְרָשׁ
This is the noun’s sense here: each city’s allotment includes its surrounding ground.
לַלְוִיִּם
la-Leviyyim
GROWS FROM
לוה
Join, attach, accompany
The name Levi is linked in Genesis to לָוָה (lavah, join), and Numbers 18:2 uses the same root for the Levites being joined to Aaron’s service. The English label hides that joining echo; here, the joined community receives a place within Israel’s shared landscape.
ALSO GROWS
Levi: Joined
לֵוִי
Genesis 29:34 links the name to Leah’s words, “my husband be joined unto me.”
yillavu: They shall be joined
וְיִלָּווּ
Numbers 18:2 uses this form for the Levites being joined to Aaron and serving with him.
תִּתְּנוּ
tittenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place
The repeated word translated “give” comes from נָתַן (natan), which can also mean “set” or “place.” The allotment is provision placed within the community: cities and their surrounding ground are assigned together.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, grant
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind the repeated command to give the cities.
wayyitten: He set, placed
וַיִּתֵּן
Genesis 1:17 uses this same root when God “set” the lights in the firmament, showing the root’s sense of placing as well as giving.
THE PATTERN
Those who serve a community’s worship receive material provision from the community’s shared life.
And concerning the cities you shall give from the holding of the children of Israel, from those who have many you shall give many, but from those who have few you shall give few; each one shall give of his cities to the Levites according to the inheritance he inherits.The priests, the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, have no portion nor inheritance with Israel; they eat the LORD's offerings of fire, and his inheritance. Therefore they have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.Do you not know that those who serve the set-apart things eat from the temple, and those who sit beside the altar share with the altar?THE THREAD
And your brothers also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring with you, that they may be joined to you and serve you, but you and your sons with you shall serve before the dwelling of the witness.The verb “joined” shares the root לוה (lavah, join or attach) linked to the name Levi, describing how the Levites are connected to the service. Numbers 35:7 gives this joined community cities and surrounding land, placing that service within shared life.
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