What Does Joshua 10:40 Mean?
So Joshua struck all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the lowland, and of the slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but devoted all that had breath to destruction, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.
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 Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.THE KEY
The verse names the full scope of conquest as the destruction of every breathing being, and explicitly places that violence under divine command.
THE MEANING
This verse names conquest as total: Joshua strikes across the hill country, south, vale, and springs; no king remains, and every living being is destroyed. It places that slaughter under the command of the LORD God of Israel. The stated scope reaches beyond rulers to all life described as breathing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this is only a transfer of rule: the verse explicitly extends destruction beyond the kings to every being with breath.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱרִים
heḥĕrîm
GROWS FROM
חרם
ḥ-r-m
To place under a ban; in this context, to devote to destruction.
“devoted all that had breath to destruction” in this verse is heḥĕrîm. The English phrase carries the violence but hides the root’s vocabulary of a ban: the verse presents an entire population as placed beyond sparing. The root joins destruction to an explicit, irrevocable prohibition.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A ban; something placed under a ban, often devoted to destruction.
חֵרֶם
This noun names the ban behind the verb in the verse and shows that the destruction is presented as a total proscription.
haḥarēm taḥărîmēm: You shall utterly destroy them.
הַחֲרֵם תַּחֲרִימֵם
Deuteronomy uses this emphatic form of the same root, revealing the shared language of command and completed destruction.
הַנְּשָׁמָה
han-neshamah
GROWS FROM
נשם
n-sh-m
To breathe; breath or living breath.
The word translated “all that breathed” measures the scope by breath-bearing life itself. That makes the stated violence wider than a battle between rulers or combatants: the wording leaves no breathing being outside its reach.
ALSO GROWS
neshamah: Breath; living breath.
נְשָׁמָה
This is the noun whose totality marks who is included in the verse.
neshimah: Breathing; respiration.
נְשִׁימָה
The same root remains in the Hebrew word for breathing, keeping the link between breath and life visible.
צִוָּה
tsivvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
ṣ-w-h
To command, charge, or direct.
“commanded” in this verse is tsivvah. The closing clause attributes the slaughter to a command, presenting it as obedience rather than Joshua’s independent policy. The same root forms the word for a commandment, linking the act of commanding to the category of command.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: A commandment.
מִצְוָה
This noun makes visible the root shared with the verse’s claim that the act was commanded.
tzav: A command or directive.
צַו
This direct command form shows the root’s plain sense of issuing an order.
THE PATTERN
These commands define conquest as total by naming no survivors among the life within their scope.
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.Deuteronomy 20:17 and Joshua 10:40 share the root חרם (ḥ-r-m, “place under a ban; devote to destruction”). In Deuteronomy it appears in an emphatic command, and in Joshua the same verb marks the slaughter as completed, exposing the direct linguistic link between order and outcome.
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