Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Joshua 19:47 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 47. 47And the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them: therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Joshua 19:47 reports Dan's attack, killing, occupation, and renaming of Leshem; it must not be romanticized as innocent migration.
Read It With
- Joshua 19:40–48
Read Joshua 19:47 with 19:40–48. Joshua 19:47 reports Dan's attack, killing, occupation, and renaming of Leshem; it must not be romanticized as innocent migration. The complete unit establishes this movement: Dan's lot lists lowland towns but then reports failure to hold its territory, a northern attack on Leshem, killing by the sword, occupation, and renaming the city Dan.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Joshua 19:32-39 ends with this movement: Fortified cities conclude the allotment. Joshua 19:40-48 begins with this next step: The seventh lot begins with a southern town list. It reaches this outcome: Leshem's population is killed and the city renamed. This movement materially develops the book's concern with Danite migration, Leshem's victims, renaming, Judges parallels, textual differences, and colonial-use safeguards. At Joshua 19:47, this verse contributes the following distinct step: Joshua 19:47 reports Dan's attack, killing, occupation, and renaming of Leshem; it must not be romanticized as innocent migration.
Follow the Context
- The seventh lot begins with a southern town list.
- Territorial pressure produces migration and attack.
- Leshem's population is killed and the city renamed.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“And the coast of the children of Dan went out…”
In plain language: Joshua 19:47 reports Dan's attack, killing, occupation, and renaming of Leshem; it must not be romanticized as innocent migration.
Dan's lot lists lowland towns but then reports failure to hold its territory, a northern attack on Leshem, killing by the sword, occupation, and renaming the city Dan. Within that movement, this wording Joshua 19:47 reports Dan's attack, killing, occupation, and renaming of Leshem; it must not be romanticized as innocent migration.
Why it matters: This wording carries a material narrative, lexical, textual, historical, theological, ethical, or misuse boundary.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Dan's migration and renaming do not authorize settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, seizure of a weaker community's land, or erasure of Indigenous names. Read Joshua 19:47 with Joshua 19:40–48. In context, the verse Joshua 19:47 reports Dan's attack, killing, occupation, and renaming of Leshem; it must not be romanticized as innocent migration.
What Remains True
Joshua 19:47 contributes this bounded enduring truth: Ancient victory and judgment claims do not remove the humanity of victims or grant modern readers authority to repeat conquest, collective punishment, or dehumanization.
How It Can Shape Life
- Joshua 19:47 calls readers to this response: Name the violence and its victims, reject any transfer to modern ethnic or territorial conflict, protect civilians and prisoners, and test claims of divine sanction. In Joshua 19:40-48, this response specifically addresses Danite migration, Leshem's victims, renaming, Judges parallels, textual differences, and colonial-use safeguards.
Teach It Back
Explain Joshua 19:47's contribution to Joshua 19:40-48: Joshua 19:47 reports Dan's attack, killing, occupation, and renaming of Leshem; it must not be romanticized as innocent migration. Include what the surrounding verses add, one material uncertainty or ethical cost, and what this verse does not authorize today.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Joshua 19:40-48 — Dan's Allotment Expands through the Capture of LeshemSources 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 “Dan's Allotment Expands through the Capture of Leshem.” 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 19:40-48, 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, 19:40–48
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. 443-445, translation and translator notes on 19:40–48
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. 172, discussion of 19:40–48
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 19:40–48
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access textual study
The Battle against Ai and the Textual History of the Book of Joshua
Kristin De Troyer
Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies 48, 2015
Supports: Masoretic, Old Greek, Qumran, and revision evidence plus a focused case study showing why ancient textual differences require visible limits.
Exact location: De Troyer, 'The Battle against Ai and the Textual History of the Book of Joshua,' JSCS 48 (2015), printed pp. 39–53, especially pp. 39–43 on book-wide MT-OG differences and pp. 43–53 on Joshua 8; applied to 19:40–48
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 19:40–48
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 19:40–48
Open source ↗