Bible Strands
Joshua 21:35
Dimnah, and Nahalal—four cities, together with their pasturelands.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator documents the final portion of the Merarite clan's inheritance, listing two specific cities before noting the total count of four. This allocation follows the Zebulunite grant in Joshua 21:34 and immediately precedes the Reubenite distribution in Joshua 21:36.
The words — The text names דִּמְנָה (Dimnah) and נַהֲלָל (Nahalal), then appends מִגְרָשׁ (migra), literally "open pastureland" or "grazing ground," to each settlement. These terms operate as a fixed administrative formula for territorial assignment.
The thread — The pairing of named urban centers with their surrounding pasturelands appears in the immediate context of Joshua 21:34 and Joshua 21:36. This structural repetition marks the systematic distribution of Levitical inheritance across multiple tribal territories.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to accept that city grants in Israel included their economic periphery as a single legal unit. A reader must note that the text treats pastureland as an inseparable component of the inheritance, not a secondary afterthought.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Dimnah with her suburbs, Nahalal with her suburbs; four cities.