What Does Joshua 11:11 Mean in the King James?
And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire.
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 verse names those killed as living selves, then measures the destruction by the breath that remains nowhere.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a scene of total destruction in full view: every living being within Hazor is struck with the sword, no breath remains, and the city is burned. Its words name both the lives taken and the breath extinguished, leaving the violence stark and complete.
THE ROOT
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־שׁ
n-p-sh
Living self, life, or living being.
“souls” in this verse is nephesh. Here, nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ, living self) names the lives struck down, not an abstraction detached from the body. The verse then says no neshamah (נְשָׁמָה, breath) remains, making the destruction explicit in both living selves and breath.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh ḥayyah: Living being
נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
Genesis 2:7 uses this phrase for the human who becomes a living being, keeping “souls” here concrete and embodied.
nephesh: Appetite, desire, or throat
נֶפֶשׁ
The same word can name bodily appetite or the throat, showing how close its meaning stays to embodied life.
נְשָׁמָה
neshamah
GROWS FROM
נ־שׁ־ם
n-sh-m
Breath, breathing.
The verse names breath itself as what remains nowhere. Genesis 2:7 uses this same word for the breath of life, so the wording measures the destruction at its most bodily limit.
ALSO GROWS
neshamah: Breath
נְשָׁמָה
The same word marks the breath absent from Hazor in this verse.
nishmat ḥayyim: Breath of life
נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים
Genesis 2:7 uses this phrase for the breath given to the human, revealing the life that this verse says is gone.
הַחֲרֵם
haḥarem
GROWS FROM
ח־ר־ם
ḥ-r-m
Place under a ban; devote to complete destruction.
“utterly destroying” in this verse is haḥarem. This root names a totalizing act of destruction, adding force to the sword’s direct violence. The verse pairs it with the statement that no neshamah (נְשָׁמָה, breath) remains, then says Hazor is burned.
ALSO GROWS
ḥerem: A ban or something devoted to destruction
חֵרֶם
This noun shows the category of complete removal carried by the verb in the verse.
heḥerim: Devote to destruction
הֶחֱרִים
This verbal form expresses the force of the verse’s “utterly destroying”.
THE PATTERN
Scripture speaks of human life as embodied selves sustained by breath, so the ending of breath names the loss of living persons.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;THE THREAD
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.Joshua pairs nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ, living self) with neshamah (נְשָׁמָה, breath) while naming the destruction. Genesis 2:7 uses those same two Hebrew words as a human becomes a living being, so the measure of loss mirrors the language of life’s beginning.
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