What Does Psalm 78:55 Mean?
He drove out the nations before them, and let an inheritance fall to them by the measuring cord, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
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
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 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.
“let an inheritance fall to them by the measuring cord” in this verse is wayyappilem. 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.
“let an inheritance fall to them by the measuring cord” 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.
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 One Above allotted the nations their inheritance, when he split apart the sons of Adam, he stationed the borders of the peoples by the count of the children of Israel.And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they took hold of it, and settled in it.And he made from one blood every nation of humankind to settle upon all the face of the earth, marking out their fitted seasons and setting the boundary stones of their dwelling.THE THREAD
The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.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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