What Does 1 Chronicles 10:7 Mean in the King James?
And when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, then they forsook their cities, and fled: and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew moves from leaving to settling: Israel’s flight becomes the Philistines’ dwelling.
THE MEANING
When the people who hold a place see their protection collapse, fear can empty their homes and another power can settle in. The city remains while its inhabitants and control change; leaving is followed by occupation. The verse makes the cost of flight visible in the transfer of dwelling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a place remains yours simply because it still stands: when its people flee, another presence can occupy it.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַזְבוּ
wayyaʿazvū
GROWS FROM
עזב
to leave, depart, or forsake
“forsook” in this verse is wayyaʿazvū. This root names leaving; it does not mean that the place itself disappears. The next verb shifts the scene from departure to settlement, so the loss is not only that Israel flees but that its cities become places for new inhabitants.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōzēv: one who leaves or forsakes
עֹזֵב
This form shows the root describing the act of leaving something behind, whether a place or another object.
neʿĕzāv: forsaken, abandoned
נֶעֱזָב
This form names the state that remains after someone leaves, making visible how departure can leave a place exposed.
וַיֵּשְׁבוּ
wayyēšəvū
GROWS FROM
ישב
to sit, remain, settle, or dwell
“dwelt” in this verse is wayyēšəvū. The root includes the sense of sitting and settling, so the Philistines’ dwelling is more than a passing arrival. The final verb turns the space opened by Israel’s flight into a new settled presence.
ALSO GROWS
yōšēv: inhabitant, one who dwells
יֹשֵׁב
This related form describes someone by their settled presence in a place.
mōšāv: dwelling place, seat, or settlement
מוֹשָׁב
The word makes the link between settling and the place where someone takes up residence.
THE PATTERN
When fear empties a dwelling, the vacancy can become an opening for another power to settle.
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.THE THREAD
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.The word translated “leave” comes from the same root, עזב (ʿāzav), as “forsook” here. Genesis shows that leaving can mark a change of dwelling and allegiance; Chronicles shows how flight under threat leaves a place open to another people.
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