What Does Joshua 11:14 Mean in the King James?
And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.
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 Hebrew says no neshamah, no breath, the word that also names life’s breath, is left.
THE MEANING
This verse confronts you with a brutal division: the cattle and city goods become property, while every person is struck down. No human breath remains; possession and extermination stand side by side in the same sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that victory can be measured only by what is gained: the same verse that names the spoil says that no one is left alive.
THE ROOT
נְשָׁמָה
neshamah
GROWS FROM
נשם
n-sh-m
To breathe; breath as a sign of life.
“breathe” in this verse is neshamah. Neshamah means breath, so “no neshamah” makes total destruction the absence of breath itself. The same word appears in the “breath of life” given to the human in Genesis 2:7: here, the breath that marks life is entirely gone.
ALSO GROWS
nishmat chayyim: Breath of life
נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים
In Genesis 2:7 this phrase names the breath by which the human becomes a living soul; here, no breath remains.
kol neshamah: Every breath; all that breathes
כֹּל נְשָׁמָה
The phrase in this verse and Deuteronomy 20:16 makes the destruction exhaustive by naming every breath.
בָּזְזוּ
bazzu
GROWS FROM
בזז
b-z-z
To plunder; to seize as spoil.
“took for a prey” in this verse is bazzu. The verb bazzu means “they plundered,” and the verse says they did it “for themselves.” The root places the taking of goods beside the ending of human breath, making possession and killing part of the same sentence.
ALSO GROWS
baz: Booty; spoil
בַּז
This noun names what is taken in plunder, the same category of goods the verse says they keep.
bizzah: Spoil; plunder
בִּזָּה
This related noun makes the taking explicit: the city’s goods become plunder for the conquerors.
THE PATTERN
The language of total destruction makes completeness measurable by whether any living thing remains.
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.THE THREAD
But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:Joshua 11:14 and Deuteronomy 20:16 use the same Hebrew word, neshamah, for breath. Deuteronomy’s “nothing that breatheth” opens up what “no breath” means here: the destruction leaves no living breath.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us