What Does Joshua 10:36 Mean in the King James?
And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:
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
Joshua’s name carries “YHWH delivers,” yet this verse says he and all Israel fight a city; the name does not erase the violence.
THE MEANING
The verse puts collective force before you: Joshua and all Israel go to Hebron and fight against the city. It gives no reason here, and the violence remains direct rather than becoming a symbol.
THE ROOT
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Yehoshua
GROWS FROM
י־שׁ־ע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver; bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
Joshua’s name joins the divine name with יָשַׁע (yāshaʿ, deliver). Here that name stands beside the plain statement that Joshua leads an assault on a city; the verse leaves the tension visible.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuʿah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
The name’s root carries deliverance as a concrete movement out of constriction.
mōshiaʿ: One who delivers
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the agent of deliverance, echoing the meaning carried in Joshua’s name.
וַיִּלָּחֲמוּ
wayyillāḥămû
GROWS FROM
ל־ח־ם
l-ḥ-m
Fight; wage war.
“fought” in this verse is wayyillāḥămû. This verb belongs to the same word-family as מִלְחָמָה (milḥāmāh, battle/war) and לֹחֵם (lōḥēm, fighter). The wording makes Joshua and Israel the attacking force and Hebron the city against which they fight.
ALSO GROWS
milḥāmāh: Battle or warfare
מִלְחָמָה
It names the warfare carried by the verb in this verse.
lōḥēm: A fighter or warrior
לֹחֵם
It names the person acting through the root’s fighting.
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥeḇrôn
GROWS FROM
ח־ב־ר
ḥ-b-r
Join; associate.
Hebron’s name is connected with a root of joining and association. The verse places that name beside the army’s attack, keeping the target present as a place of human association rather than only a point on a campaign route.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāḇēr: Companion or associate
חָבֵר
This branch shows the root’s sense of people joined in association.
ḥeḇer: A company or association
חֶבֶר
This branch echoes the joining carried in the name Hebron.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can state bodily violence in direct verbs, leaving its force visible rather than converting it into an inward metaphor.
And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.THE THREAD
And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.Joshua is יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshua, “YHWH delivers”), and Jesus is Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), the Greek form of יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēshūaʿ, deliverance), from יָשַׁע (yāshaʿ, deliver). The shared name-root opens the deliverance carried in Joshua’s name while leaving this verse’s fighting fully visible.
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