Joshua 21:14 — Word Study
WLCוְאֶת־ יַתִּר֙ וְאֶת־ מִגְרָשֶׁ֔הָ וְאֶת־ אֶשְׁתְּמֹ֖עַ וְאֶת־ מִגְרָשֶֽׁהָ׃
BSAJattirYattîyr [a city in Judah] EshtemoaʼEshtᵉmôaʻ [I will make myself heard, a city given to the Levites]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| וְאֶת־ | and the object marker | Conjunction, particle |
| יַתִּר֙ | Jattir | Noun proper |
| וְאֶת־ | and the object marker | Conjunction, particle |
| מִגְרָשֶׁ֔הָ | pasture lands its | Noun common masculine plural construct, suffix |
| וְאֶת־ | and the object marker | Conjunction, particle |
| אֶשְׁתְּמֹ֖עַ | Eshtemoa | Noun proper |
| וְאֶת־ | and the object marker | Conjunction, particle |
| מִגְרָשֶֽׁהָ׃ | pasture lands its | Noun common masculine plural construct, suffix |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | Jattir, Eshtemoa, |
| KJV | And Jattir with her suburbs, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs, |
| ASV | and Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs, |
| YLT | and Jattir and its suburbs, and Eshtemoa and its suburbs, |
| WEB | Jattir with its pasture lands, Eshtemoa with its pasture lands, |
| BBE | And Jattir with its grass-lands, and Eshtemoa with its grass-lands; |
All translations agree on the names of the cities mentioned.
The verse consists of a simple listing of cities and their pasturelands, with no complex sentence structure.
3 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Whedon & more — read them ›
clause
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Joshua 21:14
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Cities Given to the Levitesgenerated
Joshua 21:14 lists Jattir and Eshtemoa among the cities given to the Levites, highlighting the provision made for the priestly tribe in the land of Israel. This allocation is part of a broader narrative in which cities of refuge and towns for the Levites are established, as seen in the previous verses. These cities served not only as residences but also as centers for worship and community life.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joshua 15:48 | These were in the hill country: Shamir, Jattir, Socoh, |
| 2 | 1 Samuel 30:27–28 | He sent gifts to those in Bethel, Ramoth Negev, and Jattir; |
| 3 | Joshua 15:50 | Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim, |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 3 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — יַתִּר, ya.Tirgenerated
The name יַתִּיר (ya.Tir) refers to a town located in the mountains of Judah, which is associated with the meaning 'plenty.' It is identified as a geographical location without significant disagreement among the lexicons.
Jattir is mentioned specifically as a town given to the priests, emphasizing its importance in the religious and social structure of ancient Israel.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, so the BSB is the wording every comparison below is made against.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The finite verb is absent, as this verse is a simple list of nouns. The structure consists of noun phrases that identify the cities and their associated pasturelands.
The Hebrew word order places emphasis on the cities and their pasturelands, indicating their significance in the context of the Levites' inheritance.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates יַתִּר as Jattir and אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ as Eshtemoa, maintaining the names of the cities. This shows a consistent recognition of these locations in both Hebrew and Greek texts.
The Greek translation reflects the same cities, underscoring their importance in the Levitical allotment.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Joshua 21:14 lists two cities, Jattir and Eshtemoa, along with their pasturelands, which were given to the Levites. These cities were important for the priestly tribe in their service to God and the community.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
Jattir and Eshtemoa were cities given to the Levites, emphasizing their role in the religious life of Israel and providing them with places to live and serve.
The pasturelands were essential for the Levites, as they needed land for their livestock and sustenance, reflecting their dependence on agricultural support.
These cities were allocated to the Levites as part of their inheritance in Israel, ensuring they had places to dwell and fulfill their priestly duties.
Eshtemoa means 'I will make myself heard,' indicating its significance as a place of worship and community life for the Levites.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What role do you think cities like Jattir and Eshtemoa played in the lives of the Levites?
- How can we learn from the allocation of land and resources in our own communities today?
- In what ways can we ensure that those who serve in our communities have the support they need?
- What does the name Eshtemoa suggest about the purpose of the city in ancient Israel?
Commentators on this verse — 3 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Joshua 21:14 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd Jattir with her suburbs,.... [See comments on Joshua 15:48]; and Eshtemoa with her suburbs; [See comments on Joshua 15:50].
Read John Gill on Joshua 21 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryWhich the children of Aaron, being of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi, had: for theirs was the first lot. No JFB commentary on these verses.
Read Robert Jamieson on Joshua 21 →Daniel Denison Whedon1808–1885Whedon's Commentary on the Bible14-17. Jattir — Joshua 15:48. Eshtemoah — Joshua 15:50. Debir — Joshua 10:38. Juttah — Joshua 15:55. Beth-shemesh — Joshua 15:10. Gibeon — Joshua 9:3. Geba — Joshua 18:24.
Read Daniel Denison Whedon on Joshua 21 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
Jattir, Eshtemoa,
Jattir with its pasture lands, Eshtemoa with its pasture lands,
Jattir, Eshtemoa,
Jattir, Eshtemoa,
Tyndale line
And Jattir with her suburbs, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs,
and Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs,
and Jattir with her suburbs, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs;
And Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs,
And Iattir with her suburbes, and Eshtemoa, and her suburbes,
Strictly literal
and Jattir and its suburbs, and Eshtemoa and its suburbs,
and Jattir and its suburbs, and Eshtemoa and its suburbs,
and Jattir and its outskirts, and Eshtemoa and its outskirts,
And Yattir with its open spaces, and Eshtemoa' with its open spaces.
Jattir with its pasturelands, and Eshtemoa with its pasturelands.
From the Latin
And Jether and Estemo,
Simplified
Jattir, Eshtemoa,
And Jattir with its grass-lands, and Eshtemoa with its grass-lands;
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint show agreement on the names of the cities, with the Septuagint providing a word-for-word correspondence for most of the verse. This consistency highlights the reliability of the text across different traditions.
וְאֶת־ יַתִּר֙ וְאֶת־ מִגְרָשֶׁ֔הָ וְאֶת־ אֶשְׁתְּמֹ֖עַ וְאֶת־ מִגְרָשֶֽׁהָ׃
6 of the 8 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Joshua 21:14
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
אֵת (eth) is primarily a grammatical marker in Hebrew, indicating the definite direct object of a verb. It is not translated into English and typically precedes nouns that are definite. The word is derived from a demonstrative sense of entity, related to the Hebrew word for 'self.' Its Aramaic equivalent is יָת (yat).
אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
base
H853 אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
853 'eth ayth
apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of
entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more
definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or
namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).
see HEBREW for 0226
אֵת (et) — [Obj.].
sign of the definite direct object, not translated in English but generally preceding and indicating the accusative
Aramaic equivalent: yat (יָת "whom" H3487)
HC/To — Conjunction · particleHC/To
יַתִּיר (yat.tir) refers to a town located in the mountains of Judah, known as Jattir. The name is associated with the meaning 'plenty.' The entries consistently identify it as a geographical location without significant disagreement among the lexicons.
יַתִּיר, יַתִּר n.pr.loc. town in Judah
base
H3492 יַתִּיר, יַתִּר
3492 Yattiyr yat-teer'
from 3498; redundant; Jattir, a place in Palestine:--Jattir.
see HEBREW for 03498
יַתִּיר (yat.tir) — Jattir.
§ Jattir = "plenty"
a town in the mountains of Judah
N-proper — Noun properHNpl
jat'-er (yattir, and yattir): A town in the hill country of Judah, mentioned in conjunction with Shamir and Socoh (Jos 15:48); one of the cities given to the "children of Aaron the priest" (Jos 21:14; 1Ch 6:57). David after his victory over the Amalekites sent a present of the spoil from Ziklag "to them that were in Jattir" (1Sa 30:27).
It is now Khirbet `Attir, an important ruin, in the extreme South of the hill country, 5 miles Southeast of edh Dhariyeh and 20 miles Southeast of Belt Jibrin. This must Correspond to the "very large village Jethira" which is mentioned in Eusebius, Onomasticon (119 27; 133 3; 134 24, etc.) as 20 miles Southeast of Eleutheropolis (i.e. Beit…
Jattir
Pre-eminent, a city in the mountains of Judah (Josh. 15:48; 21:14).
(pre-eminent), a town of Judah in the mountain districts, (Joshua 15:48) one of the group containing Socho, Eshtemoa, etc. See also (Joshua 21:14; 1 Samuel 30:27; 1 Chronicles 6:57) By Robinson it is identified with ’Attir , six miles north of Molada and ten miles south of Hebron.
a remnant; excellent
אֵת (eth) is primarily a grammatical marker in Hebrew, indicating the definite direct object of a verb. It is not translated into English and typically precedes nouns that are definite. The word is derived from a demonstrative sense of entity, related to the Hebrew word for 'self.' Its Aramaic equivalent is יָת (yat).
אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
base
H853 אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
853 'eth ayth
apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of
entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more
definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or
namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).
see HEBREW for 0226
אֵת (et) — [Obj.].
sign of the definite direct object, not translated in English but generally preceding and indicating the accusative
Aramaic equivalent: yat (יָת "whom" H3487)
HC/To — Conjunction · particleHC/To
מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) refers to common or open land, often associated with areas where flocks are driven for pasture. It can denote a suburb or the space around a building, and is noted in Ezekiel 27:28. The term is derived from a root meaning to drive out.
מִגְרָשׁ n.m. common, common-land, open land
base
H4054 מִגְרָשׁ
4054 migrash mig-rawsh'
also (in plural) feminine (Ezek. 27:28) migrashah
{mig-raw-shaw'}; from 1644; a suburb (i.e. open country
whither flocks are driven from pasture); hence, the area
around a building, or the margin of the sea:--cast out,
suburb.
see HEBREW for 01644
מִגְרָשׁ (mig.rash) — pasture.
common, common land, open land, suburb
HNcmpc/Sp3fs — Noun common masculine plural construct · suffixHNcmpc/Sp3fs
אֵת (eth) is primarily a grammatical marker in Hebrew, indicating the definite direct object of a verb. It is not translated into English and typically precedes nouns that are definite. The word is derived from a demonstrative sense of entity, related to the Hebrew word for 'self.' Its Aramaic equivalent is יָת (yat).
אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
base
H853 אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
853 'eth ayth
apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of
entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more
definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or
namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).
see HEBREW for 0226
אֵת (et) — [Obj.].
sign of the definite direct object, not translated in English but generally preceding and indicating the accusative
Aramaic equivalent: yat (יָת "whom" H3487)
HC/To — Conjunction · particleHC/To
אֶשְׁתְּמוֹעַ (Eshtmoa) refers to a Levitical city in the mountainous region of Judah, south of Hebron. The name is derived from a root suggesting obedience and is associated with meanings like 'I will make myself heard.' There are variations in the name, including אֶשְׁתְּמֹה (Eshtemoh), which carries different connotations.
אֶשְׁתְּמוֹעַ, אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ, אֶשְׁתְּמֹה n.pr.loc. Levitical city in mountain-country of Judah, south of Hebron
base
H851 אֶשְׁתְּמוֹעַ, אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ
851 'Eshtmoa` esh-tem-o'-ah
or bEshtmowam {esh-tem-o'-ah}; or sEshtmoh {esh-tem-o'}; from
8085 (in the sense of obedience); Eshtemoa or Eshtemoh, a
place in Palestine:--Eshtemoa, Eshtemoh.
see HEBREW for 08085
אֶשְׁתְּמוֹעַ (esh.te.mo.a) — Eshtemoa.
§ Eshtemoa = "I will make myself heard" Eshtemoh = "I shall cause my own ruin: fire of astonishment: I shall soar aloft"
a Levitical city in Judah
N-proper — Noun properHNpl
esh-te-mo'-a, esh'-te-mo-a ('eshtemoa`):
A Levitical city in the hill country of Judah (Jos 21:14; 1Ch 6:57); Eshtemoh ('eshtemoh, Jos 15:50). In 1ch 4:17,19, Eshtemoa is said to be a Maacathite and "son" of Ishbah. David after routing the Amalekites sent a present to his friends in (among other places) Eshtemoa (1Sa 30:28).
It is now es-Semu`a, a considerable village of evident antiquity some 8 miles South of Hebron.
Eshtemoa
Obedience, a town in the mountains of Judah (Josh. 21:14; 1 Chr. 6:57), which was allotted, with the land round it, to the priests. It was frequented by David and his followers during their wanderings; and he sent presents of the spoil of the Amalekites to his friends there (1 Sam. 30:28). It is identified with es-Semu’a, a village about 3 1/2 miles east of Socoh, and 7 or 8 miles south of Hebron, around which there are ancient remains of the ruined city. It is the centre of the “south country” or Negeb. It is also called “Eshtemoh” (Josh. 15:50).
and in shorter form Eshtemoh (obedience), a town of Judah in the mountains, (Joshua 15:50) allotted to the priest. (Joshua 21:14; 1 Chronicles 6:57) It was one of the places frequented by David and his followers during the long period of their wanderings. (1 Samuel 30:28) comp. 1Sam 30:31 Its site is at Semu’a , a village seven miles south of Hebron.
אֵת (eth) is primarily a grammatical marker in Hebrew, indicating the definite direct object of a verb. It is not translated into English and typically precedes nouns that are definite. The word is derived from a demonstrative sense of entity, related to the Hebrew word for 'self.' Its Aramaic equivalent is יָת (yat).
אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
base
H853 אֵת the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite
853 'eth ayth
apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of
entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more
definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or
namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).
see HEBREW for 0226
אֵת (et) — [Obj.].
sign of the definite direct object, not translated in English but generally preceding and indicating the accusative
Aramaic equivalent: yat (יָת "whom" H3487)
HC/To — Conjunction · particleHC/To
מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) refers to common or open land, often associated with areas where flocks are driven for pasture. It can denote a suburb or the space around a building, and is noted in Ezekiel 27:28. The term is derived from a root meaning to drive out.
מִגְרָשׁ n.m. common, common-land, open land
base
H4054 מִגְרָשׁ
4054 migrash mig-rawsh'
also (in plural) feminine (Ezek. 27:28) migrashah
{mig-raw-shaw'}; from 1644; a suburb (i.e. open country
whither flocks are driven from pasture); hence, the area
around a building, or the margin of the sea:--cast out,
suburb.
see HEBREW for 01644
מִגְרָשׁ (mig.rash) — pasture.
common, common land, open land, suburb
HNcmpc/Sp3fs — Noun common masculine plural construct · suffixHNcmpc/Sp3fs