What Does 1 Samuel 30:30 Mean?
And to those who were in Hormah, and to those who were in Chorashan, and to those who were in Athach,
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
And to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chor-ashan, and to them which were in Athach,THE KEY
The first place named among the recipients, Hormah, carries a name rooted in devotion to destruction, yet here it receives a share of recovered spoil.
THE MEANING
Destruction does not define the only thing that can reach a place: Hormah is named among the recipients of shared spoil. What has been recovered moves outward from its holder to particular communities.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place marked by destruction can only receive loss; here Hormah is named among those receiving a share.
THE ROOT
חָרְמָה
ḥormāh
GROWS FROM
חרם
ḥ-r-m
To place under a ban or devote; in this context, to devote to destruction.
The name carries the idea of something placed under the ban; in Judges, a verb from the same root is translated “utterly destroyed” in the line that names Hormah. Here Hormah appears in the list of places included in the sharing of recovered spoil, putting the name’s hard edge beside an act of provision.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāram: A verb expressing the act of placing something under the ban.
חָרַם
Judges 1:17 uses this verb as “utterly destroyed” in the same line that names the city Hormah.
ḥērem: Something set apart under a ban, often for destruction.
חֵרֶם
This noun holds the same sense of devotion and removal that echoes in Hormah’s name.
THE PATTERN
Recovered abundance moves outward from its holder to supply others.
And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Look, a blessing for you from the plunder of the enemies of the LORD.And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he handed them out to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were reclining, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.But through evenness, that in this present season your overflow may fill their lack, and their overflow may fill your lack, that there may be evenness.THE THREAD
And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck down the Canaanites who settled in Zephath, and devoted it to destruction. And the name of the city was called Hormah, the devoted.The same root behind Hormah appears here in the phrase “utterly destroyed,” in the line that gives the place its name. In 1 Samuel 30:30, that name stands among the recipients of recovered spoil, holding destruction and provision together.
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