What Does Joshua 10:39 Mean?
And he took it, and its king, and all its cities; and they struck them with the mouth of the sword, and set apart for destruction all the living souls within it; he left none remaining; as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to its king; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.
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 he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.THE KEY
Here, conquest means capturing the city and killing every living person within it; souls names the people themselves.
THE MEANING
This verse names victory as total: the city and its king are captured, every person inside is killed, and no one remains. Its comparison with Hebron and Libnah places Debir within a repeated pattern of destruction.
THE ROOT
חָרַם
ḥāram
GROWS FROM
חרם
To place under the ban or devote to destruction.
“set apart for destruction” in this verse is ḥāram. This root describes more than defeat: it names a total act of placing something under the ban. Here that act means the inhabitants are killed, with none left alive.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A thing placed under the ban; something devoted.
חֵרֶם
It shows the underlying category of the act described here: what is placed under the ban is removed from ordinary use and possession.
heḥĕrîm: He devoted to destruction; he placed under the ban.
הֶחֱרִים
This verb form makes the root’s direct connection to the passage’s destruction explicit.
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self: a person, life, or living being.
“living souls” in this verse is nephesh. Nefesh names the living person, not merely an invisible part of a person. In this verse, all the souls means the people in the city, making the stated killing of everyone unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
nafšô: His life or his self.
נַפְשׁוֹ
This form shows how nefesh can name the person as a whole, not an abstract quality separate from them.
nāphaš: To rest or be refreshed.
נָפַשׁ
This verbal branch connects the living self with the condition of life and restoration, sharpening the force of the verse’s claim that none remain.
לָכַד
lāḵaḏ
GROWS FROM
לכד
To capture or seize; to catch in a snare.
“took” in this verse is lāḵaḏ. The opening word is a capture word: the city is seized before the verse describes the killing within it. The sequence moves from taking the place to leaving no one alive there.
ALSO GROWS
lāḵaḏ: To capture or seize.
לָכַד
This is the action that begins the verse’s sequence: the city is taken.
milkōḏeṯ: A snare or trap.
מִלְכֹּדֶת
The related noun shows the root’s image of being caught and unable to escape, echoing the verse’s statement that none remain.
THE PATTERN
In these conquest passages, total victory is described as leaving no person in the captured or designated place alive.
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.But from the cities of these peoples, which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall keep alive nothing with breath.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.THE THREAD
But you shall utterly devote them to destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded you.The phrase utterly destroy uses the same Hebrew root, חרם (ḥāram, to place under the ban or devote to destruction), that underlies Joshua’s account. The parallel exposes the vocabulary of total destruction and keeps its human consequence in view.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us