What Does Deuteronomy 3:3 Mean in the King James?
So the LORD our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.
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 frames victory as the LORD placing Og into Israel’s hand, then names the human consequence plainly: they strike until no survivor remains.
THE MEANING
The verse puts divine handover and human violence in one sentence: the LORD gives Og and all his people into “our hands,” and “we smote him” until no survivor remains. It leaves the totality of the killing visible inside the language of victory.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A divine handover means the victory is bloodless. The verse immediately names the striking and the absence of survivors.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place.
The word translated “delivered” is the ordinary verb for giving, setting, or placing; “into our hands” makes the transfer one of possession and power. The handover does not soften the outcome: the verse immediately names the striking and the absence of survivors.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, place.
נָתַן
This verb’s range is present beneath “delivered”: Og is handed over into Israel’s control.
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This noun grows from the same give-root, whose range includes both giving and handing over; the verse specifies the violent consequence of this transfer.
וַנַּכֵּהוּ
vannakkehu
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
Strike, smite, wound.
“smote” in this verse is vannakkehu. The verb keeps the human subject visible: “we struck him.” Its root names physical striking, and the verse measures the result by the absence of any survivor.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
This noun from the same root makes the force of the verb concrete: the action is a strike, not merely an abstract victory.
makkeh: One who strikes.
מַכֶּה
This related form keeps the agent of the striking in view, matching the verse’s explicit “we.”
הִשְׁאִיר
hish'ir
GROWS FROM
שאר
sh-ʾ-r
Remain, be left; in this form, leave behind.
The clause denies leaving Og a survivor; its measure of completeness is the absence of any remainder. “Survivor” here is שָׂרִיד (sarid, survivor), a separate Hebrew word from the root of “left.”
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: Remnant, remainder.
שְׁאֵרִית
This branch names what remains; the verse states that nothing of this kind is left.
she'ar: The rest, remainder.
שְׁאָר
The same root carries the idea of what is left over, sharpening the verse’s claim that no remainder survives.
THE PATTERN
The text can describe victory as a divine handover and immediately name the violence the recipients enact.
And Judah went up; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.THE THREAD
And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.The same Hebrew verb נָתַן (natan, give, set, place) lies beneath “delivered” in both verses. Deuteronomy 2:33 pairs that handover with “we smote him,” making the sequence of divine giving followed by human violence visible.
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