What Does Deuteronomy 2:35 Mean in the King James?
Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.
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
“Only” narrows the list, while the roots reveal both sides of the taking: the act of plundering and the spoil claimed for themselves.
THE MEANING
The verse names what the victors retain: cattle and the captured cities’ spoil, claimed for themselves. “Only” narrows the account of what they take, while the violence that makes this wealth available remains in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the thought that “only” makes a taking small or innocent; even the narrowed list names plunder.
THE ROOT
בָּזַזְנוּ
bazaznu
GROWS FROM
בזז
b-z-z
To plunder or take as booty.
Here the word translated “took for a prey” names the act of plundering; “for ourselves” names who receives what is taken. English can make “prey” sound like an object, while the Hebrew form puts the taking in the foreground.
ALSO GROWS
baz: Booty, plunder.
בַּז
This noun names what the act of plundering produces: the goods claimed as spoil.
bazzu: They plundered.
בָּזְזוּ
In Genesis 34:27, the same root describes the seizure of a city’s goods, making the violence within “plunder” explicit.
שְׁלַל
shalal
GROWS FROM
שלל
sh-l-l
To plunder; goods taken as spoil.
The verse uses one root for the act of plundering and another for the spoil that is kept. That distinction lets you see both the taking and the inventory it leaves behind.
ALSO GROWS
shalal: Spoil, booty.
שָׁלָל
As a noun, it names the goods the verse says are retained.
lishlol: To plunder or take spoil.
לִשְׁלֹל
In Isaiah 10:6, this verb names the act of taking spoil, linking the retained goods here to the act that produces them.
THE PATTERN
War narratives mark victory by naming what the victors destroy and what they claim as spoil.
But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.THE THREAD
And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.Joshua 8:2 repeats “take for a prey unto yourselves,” using the same root for plundering as Deuteronomy’s “we took for a prey.” The shared wording shows “only” marking a boundary within the taking, not making the taking incidental.
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