What Does Deuteronomy 3:9 Mean in the King James?
(Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;)
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
Hermon remains one mountain while the verse preserves three names for it: Hermon, Sirion, and Shenir.
THE MEANING
You encounter one place through names carried by different peoples. The verse holds those names together without making them compete or letting any one of them exhaust the reality they name.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that one community’s name is the only truthful way to name a shared place.
THE ROOT
יִקְרְאוּ
yiqre'u
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
To call, proclaim, summon, or name.
“call” in this verse is yiqre'u. The same Hebrew verb introduces both names, showing each people performing the same act of naming. The root also gives מִקְרָא (miqra), a convocation or public reading: naming can be a communal act while the reality named remains one.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call, proclaim, or name.
קָרָא
This is the root verb behind both peoples’ names for the mountain.
miqra: Convocation; reading or proclamation.
מִקְרָא
This branch carries calling into shared public speech, fitting a verse that preserves names across communities.
חֶרְמוֹן
Ḥermon
GROWS FROM
חרם
ḥ-r-m
A common proposed association is with “set apart” or “devote,” though the place-name’s derivation is uncertain.
“Hermon” in this verse is Ḥermon. The name may carry an echo of something set apart, but the verse’s secure emphasis is that the mountain is named in more than one way. Its possible name-root adds a layer without deciding what Sirion and Shenir mean.
ALSO GROWS
ḥerem: Something devoted or set apart; also a ban.
חֵרֶם
This related word gives the proposed reading of Hermon a possible sense of being marked off.
ḥaram: To devote or set apart, sometimes under a ban.
חָרַם
It shares the proposed root and offers a possible resonance in the name, while the place-name link remains uncertain.
THE PATTERN
One reality can carry different names across languages and layers of encounter.
And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.THE THREAD
And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.Like Hermon, the place in Genesis carries more than one name, and the verse keeps the earlier name in view. Together they show that a new or different name can add a layer of recognition without erasing the place beneath it.
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