What Does Joshua 10:10 Mean in the King James?

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.

Joshua 10:10 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb makes the battle begin with a collapse of order, the LORD throws the opposing force into tumult before the slaughter and pursuit unfold.

THE MEANING

You encounter divine victory here in an unsoftened form: the LORD disorients one force, and the verse names a great slaughter, a chase, and repeated blows. The violence remains beside the attribution to God; the sentence does not make this victory bloodless or abstract.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that a victory attributed to God is necessarily gentle or bloodless; here the words are discomfiture, slaughter, pursuit, and blows.

THE ROOT

וַיְהֻמֵּם

wayəhummēm

GROWS FROM

ה־מ־ם

h-m-m

To make tumult or throw into confusion; to confound or discomfit.

Here “discomfited” carries the force of a force thrown into tumult, its order broken before the verse names slaughter and pursuit. The root joins confusion to the visible rout without softening the violence.

ALSO GROWS

hāmam: To make tumult, confuse, or discomfit.

הָמַם

This is the root verb behind the form in Joshua; it shows that the action begins by throwing the opposing force into disorder.

mehûmāh: Tumult, confusion, or panic.

מְהוּמָה

This noun from the same root names the disorder implicit in the verb, connecting the enemy’s confusion with the rout that follows.

THE PATTERN

Scripture can portray divine victory through the disruption and physical defeat of hostile power, leaving the violence explicit.

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,

Exodus 14:24 · KJVThe LORD’s action throws the opposing host into confusion, using the same Hebrew root as “discomfited” in Joshua.

And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet.

Judges 4:15 · KJVThe same root describes Sisera’s host being thrown into disorder before the rout becomes flight.

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Revelation 19:15 · KJVThe vision depicts divine victory through force against hostile nations, naming the violence directly.

THE THREAD

And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet.

Judges 4:15 · KJV

Judges uses the same Hebrew root ⁨ה־מ־ם⁩ (h-m-m) behind “discomfited” to describe Sisera and his host before their flight. The shared root makes the enemy’s confusion a recognizable part of this recurring language of violent defeat.

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