What Does 1 Chronicles 14:11 Mean?
And they went up to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there. Then David said, God has burst out upon my enemies by my hand, like a breach of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim, master of breaches.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
So they came up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names God’s break-in, the waters’ bursting, and the place itself: the breakthrough becomes the name of the force that makes it.
THE MEANING
God breaks in upon the enemies through David’s hand, with the force of water bursting through a barrier. The place bears the name “Master of Breaches,” holding the breakthrough as the defining nature of what happens. God is the actor, and David’s hand is the means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the split between divine action and human action: God breaks through, and the breakthrough comes through David’s hand.
THE ROOT
פָּרַץ
pāraṣ pereṣ perāṣîm
GROWS FROM
פרץ
p-r-ṣ
to break through, burst out, or make a breach
“burst out upon” in this verse is pāraṣ pereṣ perāṣîm. Hebrew repeats this root in God’s “breaking in,” the waters’ “breaking forth,” and the place-name Perazim. The verse does not only compare the event to water: its name, “Master of Breaches,” preserves the breakthrough as the nature of the one who makes it.
ALSO GROWS
pāraṣ: to break through or burst out
פָּרַץ
This verb names both God’s action against the enemies and the waters’ breaking forth, binding the divine act to the flood image.
pereṣ: a breach or bursting through; the name Pharez in the KJV
פֶּרֶץ
The noun gives the breakthrough a name, echoing Genesis where a child’s sudden emergence is called a breach.
perāṣîm: breaches or bursts
פְּרָצִים
This plural form appears in Baal-perazim, the place-name that holds the breach itself as the defining mark of the event.
THE PATTERN
A boundary gives way under force, opening passage for what was held behind it.
And it came to be, as he drew back his hand, and behold, his brother came out, and she said, How have you broken through? Let this breach be upon you. Therefore his name was called Pharez, the breach.The one who breaks through goes up before them. They break through, pass through the gate, and go out through it. Their king passes before them, and the LORD is at their head.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
The one who breaks through goes up before them. They break through, pass through the gate, and go out through it. Their king passes before them, and the LORD is at their head.The same פרץ root appears in “the breaker” and “they have broken up,” turning Baal-perazim from a title into a sequence: breach, passage through the gate, movement out. Here the breaker goes ahead, and the LORD leads.
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