What Does Deuteronomy 20:12 Mean in the King James?
And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
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
Here, “peace” means wholeness: when the city refuses it and makes war, the answer named is a siege that closes around it.
THE MEANING
Peace is not assumed from an offer or a desire; the city can refuse it and make war. The verse names the next act without disguise: the city is besieged, enclosed by force. Its movement is from refused wholeness to imposed constriction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that one side’s desire for peace can make peace mutual: the other side can refuse it and choose war.
THE ROOT
תַּשְׁלִים
tashlim
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; to make whole or secure.
“make peace” in this verse is tashlim. The verb for making peace belongs to the same word family as wholeness and completeness. The city’s refusal is therefore framed as refusing more than quiet: it refuses a relation of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This is the familiar word for peace in the same root family, revealing the depth beneath the verse’s wording.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes clear that the root’s idea is completeness, not merely an absence of fighting.
וְצַרְתָּ
vetsarta
GROWS FROM
צוּר
ts-w-r
To bind, confine, or besiege.
“Besiege” carries the sense of binding and confinement: the conflict takes spatial form as the city is ringed and narrowed. Its sound echoes צַר (tsar, narrow or constricted), a separate but closely sounding word that sharpens the movement from refused wholeness to enclosure.
ALSO GROWS
matsor: Siege, siegeworks
מָצוֹר
This noun from the root makes the enclosing operation of the besieging verb explicit.
metsurah: Enclosure, fortress
מְצוּרָה
This related form gives the root’s binding sense a physical boundary.
מִלְחָמָה
milchamah
GROWS FROM
ל־ח־ם
l-ḥ-m
To fight or wage war.
The Hebrew pairs the peace-making verb with a construction literally meaning “do war.” The conflict is an action the city performs, not a vague atmosphere.
ALSO GROWS
lacham: Fight, engage in battle
לָחַם
The verb beneath the noun names the active conflict that the city makes.
nilcham: Fight, wage war
נִלְחַם
This verbal form echoes the verse’s presentation of war as something enacted.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names peace as a concrete relation that can be refused, and it does not call war peace when refusal becomes violence.
I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.THE THREAD
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.The Hebrew phrase translated “perfect peace” repeats שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) twice. This opens Deuteronomy’s refused peace as more than a pause in fighting: it is a refused possibility of wholeness, set against the siege’s imposed constriction.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us