What Does Exodus 23:27 Mean in the King James?
I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
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 first force to meet the enemy is terror, sent ahead of your arrival.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks in a sequence of force: terror goes ahead of you, the people you encounter are destroyed, and your enemies turn away. Fear comes before arrival; destruction and retreat follow. The verse holds that violence plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that opposition can shift only through direct confrontation: here terror precedes arrival, and enemies turn away.
THE ROOT
אֲשַׁלַּח
ʾăšallaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, release, let go.
“send” in this verse is ʾăšallaḥ. The fear is sent ahead as a force that reaches the enemy before you do. The same root carries the sense of extending provision outward: shulchan, a table, and Shiloach, the sent waters associated with restored sight.
ALSO GROWS
shulchan: Table; provision extended outward.
שֻׁלְחָן
The table carries the root’s sense of what is sent or extended; here, terror is what goes out ahead.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent waters restore sight; in this verse, what is sent ahead is terror that shapes the encounter.
וְהַמֹּתִי
wəhammōtî
GROWS FROM
הָמַם
Confuse, panic, or discomfit; throw into turmoil.
“destroy” in this verse is wəhammōtî. The Hebrew root shows confusion and panic as part of how the people are overcome, while the verse still names their destruction plainly. Exodus 14:24 uses the same verb for the LORD troubling the Egyptian host, making this disorienting force visible.
ALSO GROWS
mehumah: Confusion, tumult, panic.
מְהוּמָה
This noun shows the turmoil contained in the root behind the verse’s word “destroy.”
vayyāhom: He troubled or threw into confusion.
וַיָּהָם
This form appears in Exodus 14:24, where the Egyptian host is discomfited.
THE PATTERN
Terror sent ahead disorients opposition before the encounter, and defeat or retreat follows.
And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,The verb translated “troubled” comes from הָמַם (hamam), the same root behind “destroy” in Exodus 23:27. The related scene shows confusion as part of the force that overcomes an enemy host.
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