Joshua 15:63 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 63. As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

Joshua 15:63 states that Jebusites remained with Judah at Jerusalem, a co-residence notice that resists ethnic erasure.

Judah's towns are stored by region, not as a flat inventory

This verse is one part of that explanation in Joshua 15:20-63. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.

Read It With

Joshua 15:20–63

Read Joshua 15:63 with 15:20–63. Joshua 15:63 states that Jebusites remained with Judah at Jerusalem, a co-residence notice that resists ethnic erasure. The complete unit establishes this movement: Judah's towns are grouped by southland, lowland, hill country, and wilderness, while the final notice states that Judah could not remove the Jebusites from Jerusalem and they lived together there.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Joshua 15:13-19 ends with this movement: Achsah asks for and receives upper and lower springs. Joshua 15:20-63 begins with this next step: Regional clusters preserve a dense settlement memory. It reaches this outcome: The Jebusite notice prevents the list from claiming uncomplicated possession. This movement materially develops the book's concern with town-list structure, textual totals, Jerusalem's Jebusites, co-residence, and modern ethnic-removal safeguards. At Joshua 15:63, this verse contributes the following distinct step: Joshua 15:63 states that Jebusites remained with Judah at Jerusalem, a co-residence notice that resists ethnic erasure.

Follow the Context

Regional clusters preserve a dense settlement memory.
Subtotals and names contain textual and identification difficulties.
The Jebusite notice prevents the list from claiming uncomplicated possession.

Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation

“As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children…”

In plain language: Joshua 15:63 states that Jebusites remained with Judah at Jerusalem, a co-residence notice that resists ethnic erasure.

Judah's towns are grouped by southland, lowland, hill country, and wilderness, while the final notice states that Judah could not remove the Jebusites from Jerusalem and they lived together there. Within that movement, this wording Joshua 15:63 states that Jebusites remained with Judah at Jerusalem, a co-residence notice that resists ethnic erasure.

Why it matters: This wording carries a material narrative, lexical, textual, historical, theological, ethical, or misuse boundary.

How certain? probable

What This Verse Is Not Saying

The city list does not erase prior inhabitants, prove every identification, or authorize ethnic removal from Jerusalem or any modern city. Read Joshua 15:63 with Joshua 15:20–63. In context, the verse Joshua 15:63 states that Jebusites remained with Judah at Jerusalem, a co-residence notice that resists ethnic erasure.

What Remains True

Joshua 15:63 contributes this bounded enduring truth: Land and resource administration requires truthful records, visible limits, recognition of existing people, and accountable distribution rather than sacred immunity.

Teach It Back

Explain Joshua 15:63's contribution to Joshua 15:20-63: Joshua 15:63 states that Jebusites remained with Judah at Jerusalem, a co-residence notice that resists ethnic erasure. Include what the surrounding verses add, one material uncertainty or ethical cost, and what this verse does not authorize today.

Explain the verse in context

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Continue in Context

Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.

Read Joshua 15:20-63 — Judah's Towns Are Listed with an Unremoved Jebusite Community

Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

Interpreters differ over the composition, historical value, textual form, geography, and theological judgment of “Judah's Towns Are Listed with an Unremoved Jebusite Community.” Confidence is strongest in the final-form movement summarized here; reconstructions beyond it remain labeled and limited.

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.

Exact location: Joshua 15:20-63, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Joshua

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clauses, names, repeated roots, boundary formulas, covenant terms, and the base text behind translation discussion.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Josh.xml, 15:20–63

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Joshua with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, textual, translation, list, number, geographical, historical, and cross-reference notes.

Exact location: NET Bible Joshua PDF, printed pp. 438-440, translation and translator notes on 15:20–63

Open source ↗

scholarly commentary article

Joshua

Richard D. Nelson

Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001

Supports: Whole-book movement, literary boundaries, composition, history and archaeology limits, geography, theology, and material interpretive alternatives.

Exact location: Nelson, 'Joshua,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 170-171, discussion of 15:20–63

Open source ↗

peer reviewed research review

The Book of Joshua in Recent Research

Thomas B. Dozeman

Currents in Biblical Research 15.3, 2017

Supports: Modern research plurality across textual criticism, composition, history, archaeology, geography, violence, ideology, and reception.

Exact location: Dozeman, 'The Book of Joshua in Recent Research,' Currents in Biblical Research 15.3 (2017), printed pp. 270–288; research categories and bibliography applied cautiously to 15:20–63

Open source ↗

peer reviewed article record and abstract

Joshua 13-21 and the Politics of Land Division

Jerome F. D. Creach

Interpretation 66.2, 2012

Supports: The allotment section's political and theological significance and the need to read it as more than filler.

Exact location: Creach, 'Joshua 13–21 and the Politics of Land Division,' Interpretation 66.2 (2012), official abstract and article record for printed pp. 153–163; applied only at that level to 15:20–63

Open source ↗

peer reviewed open access comparative study

West Semitic Texts and the Book of Joshua

Richard S. Hess

Bulletin for Biblical Research 7, 1997

Supports: Ancient West Semitic analogues for conquest accounts, treaties, boundaries, vocabulary, and names without treating them as modern genres.

Exact location: Hess, 'West Semitic Texts and the Book of Joshua,' Bulletin for Biblical Research 7 (1997), printed pp. 63–76, article record and comparative survey applied cautiously to 15:20–63

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record