What Does 1 Chronicles 14:11 Mean in the King James?
So they came up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim.
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 same Hebrew root names God’s break-in, the waters’ bursting, and the place itself: the breakthrough becomes the name of the force that makes it.
THE MEANING
God breaks in upon the enemies through David’s hand, with the force of water bursting through a barrier. The place bears the name “Master of Breaches,” holding the breakthrough as the defining nature of what happens. God is the actor, and David’s hand is the means.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the split between divine action and human action: God breaks through, and the breakthrough comes through David’s hand.
THE ROOT
פָּרַץ
pāraṣ pereṣ perāṣîm
GROWS FROM
פרץ
p-r-ṣ
to break through, burst out, or make a breach
“broken in; breaking forth; breaches” in this verse is pāraṣ pereṣ perāṣîm. Hebrew repeats this root in God’s “breaking in,” the waters’ “breaking forth,” and the place-name Perazim. The verse does not only compare the event to water: its name, “Master of Breaches,” preserves the breakthrough as the nature of the one who makes it.
ALSO GROWS
pāraṣ: to break through or burst out
פָּרַץ
This verb names both God’s action against the enemies and the waters’ breaking forth, binding the divine act to the flood image.
pereṣ: a breach or bursting through; the name Pharez in the KJV
פֶּרֶץ
The noun gives the breakthrough a name, echoing Genesis where a child’s sudden emergence is called a breach.
perāṣîm: breaches or bursts
פְּרָצִים
This plural form appears in Baal-perazim, the place-name that holds the breach itself as the defining mark of the event.
THE PATTERN
A boundary gives way under force, opening passage for what was held behind it.
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.THE THREAD
The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.The same פרץ root appears in “the breaker” and “they have broken up,” turning Baal-perazim from a title into a sequence: breach, passage through the gate, movement out. Here the breaker goes ahead, and the LORD leads.
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