What Does Deuteronomy 34:3 Mean in the King James?
And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.
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 view crosses dry ground and a cleft valley, then ends at Zoar, whose name means “little”, a whole landscape can culminate in smallness.
THE MEANING
This line holds a whole terrain in one view: the dry south, a cleft valley, Jericho’s palms, and Zoar, whose name means “little.” Barrenness, opening, fruitfulness, and smallness all belong within the land being seen.
THE ROOT
בִּקְעַת
biq'at
GROWS FROM
ב־ק־ע
b-q-ʿ
to split, cleave, or open apart
The word for valley carries the image of ground cleft open. English names the low terrain, while the Hebrew root also lets you see the opening that forms it.
ALSO GROWS
bāqaʿ: To divide or open apart.
בָּקַע
The same root describes a cleaving, so the valley is more than a low place: it is ground opened between its sides.
beqaʿ: A half-unit of weight.
בֶּקַע
This related word carries the sense of a divided portion, echoing the split held in the valley’s name.
נֶגֶב
negeb
GROWS FROM
נ־ג־ב
n-g-b
to be dry or parched
“south” in this verse is negeb. The Negeb is not only a direction on a compass; its name carries the condition of dry land. That shade lets the verse’s view begin in aridity before it reaches the valley and palms.
ALSO GROWS
negeb: The Negeb, a dry southern region.
נֶגֶב
The place-name preserves dryness within what English renders as “south.”
nāgab: To become dry.
נָגַב
The verb makes the land condition audible inside the regional name.
צֹעַר
Tso'ar
GROWS FROM
צ־ע־ר
ts-ʿ-r
to be small or little
Zoar carries “little” in its name. Genesis 19:20 echoes that root by calling the city מִצְעָר (mits’ar, “a little one”), so the endpoint of this wide view is also a word for smallness.
ALSO GROWS
Tso'ar: The name of the place at the verse’s boundary.
צֹעַר
The name itself carries the quality “little.”
mits'ar: Something small or little.
מִצְעָר
Genesis 19:20 uses this related form to describe Zoar, making the name’s meaning explicit.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets a landscape’s terrain and place-names disclose the conditions held within it.
Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.THE THREAD
Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.Zoar, at the end of the landscape in this verse, means “little.” Genesis 19:20 makes that meaning audible with מִצְעָר (mits’ar, “a little one”), a word from the same root.
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