What Does Joshua 13:22 Mean?
Balaam also, the son of Beor, the diviner, the children of Israel struck down with the sword, among those they had pierced.
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
Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.THE KEY
Balaam is named by divination here, while his own oracle elsewhere declares that no divination stands against Israel.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now: it names Balaam first by his practice and then among those Israel kills with the sword. It keeps his diviner’s title beside the violence of his death, without making either disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that divining knowledge or spiritual status makes a person untouchable: Balaam is still counted among the slain.
THE ROOT
הַקּוֹסֵם
ha-qosem
GROWS FROM
קסם
To practice divination or seek an oracle.
“diviner” in this verse is ha-qosem. The Hebrew title marks Balaam through the practice of divination. The same word-family appears in the oracle where Balaam says no divination is against Israel, so his title stands beside his own words about divination’s limit.
ALSO GROWS
qesem: Divination; an oracle or divined message.
קֶסֶם
This is the related noun used in Balaam’s oracle in Numbers 23:23, linking his title here to his words there.
qosem: A diviner; one who practices divination.
קוֹסֵם
This form identifies Balaam by the practice itself, even as the verse places him among those killed by the sword.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents the sword as a force that kills within conflict and threatens those who take it up.
And they killed the kings of Midian, along with the rest of the pierced. The five kings of Midian were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. Balaam also, the son of Beor, they killed with the sword.Then Jesus said to him, Turn your sword back to its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.THE THREAD
Surely there is no omen against Jacob, no divination against Israel. At this time it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, What God has worked!The Hebrew word-family behind Balaam’s title appears in this oracle as “divination.” Read together, the verses hold a sharp tension: Balaam is identified as a diviner, yet his own words declare that no divination is against Israel.
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