What Does Joshua 11:8 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.
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
“Delivered” comes from נתן (natan, give or place): the verse shows people transferred into another’s power, then names that power’s end as annihilation.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now with unsettling clarity: being placed in another’s hand means being subject to that hand’s power, and here that power ends with no survivors. It holds the LORD’s act of delivery and Israel’s violence in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that divine deliverance means rescue for everyone caught up in it: here, one people’s delivery becomes another people’s lethal power over them.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנֵם
wayyittenem
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, place, or set.
The verb translated “delivered” names the act of giving or placing them into another’s hand; the hand specifies the power they are placed under. The same root forms words for a gift, but here the outcome is stated plainly: the transfer ends in killing.
ALSO GROWS
mattan: Gift; something given.
מַתָּן
It shares the root of the act of giving, showing how the root names a transfer without determining whether its result is gentle.
mattanah: Present; gift.
מַתָּנָה
This branch also grows from נתן (natan, give or place), while the verse’s surrounding words make the violent result of this particular transfer explicit.
וַיִּרְדְּפֵם
wayyirdəfem
GROWS FROM
רדף
radaph
To pursue or follow after.
“chased” in this verse is wayyirdəfem. The root holds the pursuit itself, while the object determines its direction: here people are hunted to their destruction. Elsewhere the same verb describes pursuing peace, revealing how one root can name pursuit toward radically different ends.
ALSO GROWS
rodef: A pursuer; one who follows after.
רֹדֵף
This participle names the one doing the pursuing, making visible the agent behind the chase in this verse.
verodfehu: “And pursue it,” in the phrase “seek peace, and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14 KJV).
וְרָדְפֵהוּ
The same pursuit root can be directed toward peace; here its object is a people who are struck until none remain.
THE PATTERN
Being placed in another’s hand transfers power, while the receiver’s use of that power determines what the transfer becomes.
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.THE THREAD
And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.Here the same נתן (natan, give or place) root appears in “delivered me into thine hand.” Saul is within David’s power, but David does not kill him; the shared root makes the transfer itself the hinge, while the receiver’s action changes what follows.
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