What Does Joshua 12:14 Mean in the King James?
The king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;
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 king of Hormah is counted as one, while Hormah’s name carries the language of being devoted to destruction.
THE MEANING
A ruler’s reach can feel like a whole landscape, yet here each king resolves into one countable entry. The name Hormah holds the severe language of devotion to destruction inside that tally.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruler’s power is too vast to be named or bounded; the verse places each king within a finite count.
THE ROOT
חָרְמָה
Ḥormāh a place-name
GROWS FROM
חרם
The root ḥ-r-m (חרם) means to place under a ban or devote wholly; in this setting, it carries the sense of devotion to destruction.
Hormah is more than a location label: its name carries the root’s severe sense of something placed under the ban. That name enters the tally beside a king, keeping the place’s destruction and its ruler in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: Something devoted under a ban, often for destruction.
חֵרֶם
This noun carries the same root as Hormah and makes the name’s destructive weight audible.
ḥāram: To place under a ban or devote to destruction.
חָרַם
This verb names the action preserved in Hormah’s name.
מֶלֶךְ
Melekh king
GROWS FROM
מלך
The root m-l-k (מלך) expresses ruling or reigning.
Hebrew keeps king, reigning, and kingdom within one root; English separates the ruler from the act and realm of rule. The repeated count of “one” makes each whole structure of authority finite and nameable.
ALSO GROWS
mālak: To reign or rule.
מָלַךְ
The king named here embodies the act of reigning carried by the same root.
mamlākhāh: Kingdom or realm.
מַמְלָכָה
The root links each king to the domain of rule that the tally leaves implicit.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes domination finite by naming rulers and marking the limits of their reach.
The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Beth-el, one;As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.THE THREAD
And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.The Hebrew verb חָרַם (ḥāram, “devote to destruction”) stands behind the phrase “utterly destroyed” and shares its root with Hormah. Numbers gives the place-name its severe meaning, so Joshua’s tally names a ruler through a place whose name holds that destruction.
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