What Does 1 Chronicles 4:30 Mean in the King James?

And at Bethuel, and at Hormah, and at Ziklag,

1 Chronicles 4:30 · KJV

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

Hormah places the language of the ban inside a list of where belonging takes shape.

THE MEANING

This line makes belonging concrete: Bethuel, Hormah, and Ziklag are named one by one. The places remain distinct even as the list holds them together.

THE ROOT

חָרְמָה

ḥormāh

GROWS FROM

חרם

To devote or place under a ban, often with destruction in view.

Hormah is related to the ⁨חרם⁩ (ḥ-r-m) word family: setting something apart under a ban, often for destruction. The verse does not describe an event there, but the town’s name carries that severe language into the list.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāram: To devote or place under a ban, often for destruction.

חָרַם

This verb expresses the action contained in Hormah’s root.

ḥērem: A ban, or something devoted under the ban.

חֵרֶם

This noun shows that the root can name the state of being set apart, as well as the act.

THE PATTERN

A place-name can carry an event’s meaning beyond the event itself.

And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.

Numbers 21:3 · KJVThe name Hormah follows the destruction of the Canaanites and their cities, carrying that event into the place-name.

And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

Genesis 28:19 · KJVThe name Bethel marks the place with the meaning of the encounter associated with it.

And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

Joshua 5:9 · KJVGilgal holds the meaning of what is rolled away in the place’s name.

THE THREAD

And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.

Numbers 21:3 · KJV

This verse makes Hormah’s naming explicit: the place receives its name after the Canaanites and their cities are destroyed. Here, that same name sits among towns in a list, carrying the root’s severe meaning into the geography of belonging.

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