What Does Deuteronomy 3:7 Mean in the King James?
But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.
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 verse pairs the act of plundering with the spoil it produces, making possession the measure of conquest.
THE MEANING
Here, victory has a material face: cattle and the wealth of captured cities pass into the victors’ own hands. The verse lets you see conquest at the level of possession, where the taking does not disappear inside a grander word.
THE ROOT
בָּזַזְנוּ
bazaznu
GROWS FROM
ב־ז־ז
To plunder or strip away; to take as spoil.
“took for a prey” in this verse is bazaznu. The form בָּזַזְנוּ (bazaznu, “we plundered”) names the taking, while בַּז (baz, “prey” or “booty”) names what the plundering yields. Together they bring the transfer of concrete goods into view: what is taken becomes “for ourselves.”
ALSO GROWS
bazaz: To plunder or strip away.
בָּזַז
This verb names the act of taking in the verse.
baz: Prey or booty.
בַּז
This noun names what the act produces, echoing the verse’s “for a prey.”
שָׁלָל
shalal
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ל
To strip or plunder; spoil taken from another.
שָׁלָל (shalal, “spoil” or “booty”) names the goods taken from the cities, while the related verb שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”) names the taking. Beside bazaz (בָּזַז, bazaz; “to plunder”), it makes the line hold both the act and its collected result.
ALSO GROWS
shalal: Spoil, booty, or goods seized.
שָׁלָל
This noun names the cities’ wealth as the result of capture.
shalal: To strip or plunder.
שָׁלַל
This verbal branch echoes the action that turns a city’s goods into spoil.
THE PATTERN
The language of conquest tracks power through the transfer of what the conquered hold into the conqueror’s hands.
And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.THE THREAD
I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.Isaiah pairs שָׁלָל (shalal, “spoil”) with בַּז (baz, “prey”), from the same root as בָּזַז (bazaz, “to plunder”) in this verse. The repeated pairing lets you see the taking and the goods seized as parts of one movement.
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