What Does Deuteronomy 3:5 Mean in the King James?
All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many.
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 walls do not define the whole inhabited world: many settlements stand beyond them.
THE MEANING
You see two forms of dwelling at once: cities bounded by high walls, gates, and bars, and many towns without walls. The defended city is not the whole picture; habitation extends beyond its boundaries.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that only a walled and secured place can hold real life; this verse names the unwalled towns as many.
THE ROOT
הַפְּרָזִי
happerazi
GROWS FROM
פרז
Open, unwalled settlement; the root names a village by its lack of fortification.
“unwalled towns” in this verse is happerazi. The root names the open settlement outside the city’s defenses. The wall is one way of defining a town, but the verse also counts many places where life is not enclosed by one.
ALSO GROWS
perazot: Unwalled towns or villages
פְּרָזוֹת
Zechariah uses this related form for Jerusalem inhabited as an unwalled town, linking openness with a multitude of people and animals.
perazi: A villager or inhabitant of unwalled country
פְּרָזִי
This form frames the settlement by its openness, bringing the many unwalled towns into view as a distinct kind of dwelling.
בְּצֻרוֹת
betsurot
GROWS FROM
בצר
To fortify or make inaccessible; in a related use, to cut off grapes for harvest.
“fenced” in this verse is betsurot. This root family names both fortification and the cutting off of grapes for harvest. Here, the fortified city is more than a strong place: it is a place made inaccessible, one form of dwelling alongside the open towns.
ALSO GROWS
mivtsar: Fortress or stronghold
מִבְצָר
The same root names the fortified place itself, making explicit what these high walls, gates, and bars create.
batsir: Vintage or grape harvest
בָּצִיר
This related word carries the root’s sense of cutting off; it adds the idea of separation to the city’s enclosure.
THE PATTERN
Walls and gates mark what a city can exclude or admit, while open boundaries can still hold inhabited life.
And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.THE THREAD
And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:The Hebrew word translated “unwalled towns” is from פרז (paraz); Zechariah uses a related form for towns without walls. There, the open city is tied explicitly to a multitude, so the many unwalled settlements here register life beyond the defenses.
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