What Does Joshua 10:28 Mean?
And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and struck it with the mouth of the sword; and its king he devoted to destruction, and all the living souls within it; he left none remaining, and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did to the king of Jericho.
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 that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.THE KEY
The verse’s totality is not an empty city: the ban reaches every living soul inside it.
THE MEANING
The verse puts a complete killing before you plainly: the city is taken, its king and every living person inside are killed, and no survivor remains. Its final clause makes the violence repeatable by measuring Makkedah’s king against Jericho’s.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱרִים
heḥĕrîm
GROWS FROM
חרם
To place under a ban or devote to destruction.
“devoted to destruction” in this verse is heḥĕrîm. The verb comes from the root whose noun, ḥērem, names what is placed under a ban. Here the ban reaches the king and every living soul inside Makkedah, making the declared totality human as well as territorial.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: Ban; something placed under the ban.
חֵרֶם
The noun names the status implied by the verb: the city’s people are included in a declared scope of destruction.
ḥāram: Be placed under a ban.
חָרַם
This form shows the other side of the same root: those inside the city fall under the ban enacted by the verb.
הַנֶּפֶשׁ
hannephesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
Living self; living soul.
“living souls” in this verse is hannephesh. The Hebrew uses a collective singular with “all,” gathering the many under one term for living soul. The word keeps the verse’s reach concrete: it includes the living people within the city.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the form used in the verse; the totalizing phrase encompasses the people inside Makkedah.
nephashot: Living souls, the plural form.
נְפָשׁוֹת
The plural makes explicit the individual living souls gathered under the verse’s collective wording.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names the scope of mass killing across a place and its ages to make the claimed totality explicit.
And they devoted to destruction all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and donkey, with the mouth of the sword.Now go and strike Amalek, and devote all that they have to destruction, and do not spare them; but put to death man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.Then Herod, when he perceived that he had been mocked by the wise men, burned with rage, and sent forth and killed all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time he had carefully learned from the wise men.THE THREAD
And they devoted to destruction all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and donkey, with the mouth of the sword.Joshua 6:21 uses the same root behind “utterly destroyed,” and names the victims by age and sex before stating the sword’s reach. That parallel shows how the totalizing verb meets “all the souls”: its declared reach includes the people inside Makkedah.
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