A suburb (i.e. open country whither flocks are driven from pasture); hence, the area around a building , or the margin of the sea
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The Hebrew noun migrash names open land associated with a city, commonly the pastureland around a settlement. Numbers assigns such land with the Levites' cities so their herds and livestock have space, while Joshua and Chronicles repeatedly list cities together with their pasturelands.
Reader summary
Full entry for מִגְרָשׁ (H4054) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun migrash names open land associated with a city, commonly the pastureland around a settlement. Numbers assigns such land with the Levites' cities so their herds and livestock have space, while Joshua and Chronicles repeatedly list cities together with their pasturelands.
The BSB source-word alignment has 115 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include - (60), their pasturelands (27), pasturelands (4), together with their pasturelands (4), and pasturelands (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Leviticus 25:34. Its strongest book concentrations include Joshua (58), 1 Chronicles (44), Ezekiel (5), Numbers (5).
The Hebrew noun migrash names open land associated with a city, commonly the pastureland around a settlement. Numbers assigns such land with the Levites' cities so their herds and livestock have space, while Joshua and Chronicles repeatedly list cities together with their pasturelands. Leviticus protects the pastureland belonging to Levitical cities from permanent sale.
Ezekiel can extend the word to open land, surrounding territory, or a margin, showing that the term is broader than one modern land-use category. The word therefore identifies usable space related to a settled place, but it does not by itself settle modern questions about private ownership, public commons, zoning, or environmental policy. Readers should ask which city or structure the land surrounds, who is given its use, what purpose the passage names, and whether the text is law, allotment record, prophecy, or lament.
Migrash can illuminate provision, ordered space, and community responsibility without turning ancient Israel's arrangements into an unqualified blueprint for every society or congregation.
Migrash describes open land or pastureland connected with cities and other bounded places, especially in Levitical provisions and allotment lists, while prophetic uses broaden the spatial picture.
“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.
Israel is commanded to give the Levites cities to inhabit together with pasturelands around those cities from the tribes' inheritance.
The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.
The passage states the practical purpose of the pasturelands: space for the Levites' herds, flocks, and other livestock.
But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.
Leviticus says the open pastureland around Levitical cities may not be sold because it is their permanent possession.
For the Levites, then, there were forty-eight cities in all, together with their pasturelands, within the territory of the Israelites.
Joshua summarizes forty-eight Levitical cities together with their pasturelands within Israel's allotted tribal territories.
Within this area there is to be a section for the sanctuary 500 cubits square, with 50 cubits around it for open land.
Ezekiel's sacred-district vision sets apart a square for the sanctuary with additional open land surrounding it.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Open space designated for grazing and movement; the productive margin around settlements and sacred structures
Open space designated for grazing and movement; the productive margin around settlements and sacred structures
a suburb (i.e. open country whither flocks are driven from pasture); hence, the area around a building, or the margin of the sea BDB: common Usage: cast out, suburb.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
מִגְרָשׁ is built from this root:
Migrash keeps a city from being imagined as walls and houses alone. In the Levitical provisions, inhabited places are joined to open land that supports herds, flocks, movement, and daily life. Numbers gives both the cities and their surrounding pasturelands, then specifies dimensions and purpose. Joshua records those allocations as part of Israel's territorial ordering, and Leviticus protects the associated land from permanent sale.
Ezekiel uses the term in prophetic spatial arrangements, reminding readers that the word can denote an open margin around more than an ordinary town. These texts reveal purposeful space, but they do not supply a ready-made policy for modern municipalities, church property, or land markets. Faithful interpretation keeps covenant setting, genre, recipients, and stated use visible.
Application may ask whether communities leave room for life, work, care, and responsible stewardship, yet it should not claim divine authority for a preferred zoning plan or ownership scheme. The lexical contribution is modest and concrete: migrash is usable open land defined in relation to a settled or bounded place.
Num.35.3
Migrash is a masculine Hebrew noun for open land, pastureland, or an area around a settlement or structure. It often appears with possessive forms in city lists, where translations may repeat pastureland once for several named cities even when the Hebrew form occurs multiple times.
The New Testament affirms practical provision, responsible stewardship, and care within God's people, but it does not reproduce Israel's Levitical city-and-pastureland system for the church. Any connection should preserve that covenant difference and follow explicit New Testament teaching.