What Does Joshua 15:30 Mean in the King James?
And Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah,
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
Three place names turn a bare list into a map of generations, folly, and what is devoted to destruction.
THE MEANING
Your ground holds what brings forth life, what clouds discernment, and what is set apart for destruction. These meanings share one geography; the names make the places you inhabit carry more than coordinates.
THE ROOT
חָרְמָה
Ḥormāh
GROWS FROM
חרם
To place under a ban or devote, often to destruction.
Hormah carries the force of being set apart under a ban. The same root appears in the phrase translated “utterly destroyed,” tying the place name to an act of irrevocable devotion.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A ban; something devoted or placed under the ban.
חֵרֶם
This noun shows the root’s sense of a thing set apart beyond ordinary use.
ḥāram: To place under a ban or devote to destruction.
חָרַם
This verb is used in Numbers 21:3, where the place is named Hormah after the act.
אֶלְתּוֹלַד
Eltolad
GROWS FROM
ילד
To give birth, beget, or bring forth.
Eltolad is commonly glossed “God of generations,” with its second element linked to ילד, birth and begetting. The root gathers birth, children, and generations into one seed, giving the place name the sense of life that comes forth.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or beget.
יָלַד
The verb names the act of bringing forth that lies beneath the name’s generational sense.
toledot: Generations or descendants.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This form expands birth into the generations that proceed from it.
yeladim: Children.
יְלָדִים
The root’s most concrete branch makes the name’s generative sense personal.
כְּסִיל
Kesil
GROWS FROM
כסל
To be foolish or dull in discernment.
“Chesil” in this verse is Kesil. Kesil is the ordinary Hebrew word for a fool, and the same form also names the constellation Orion. The town name therefore carries folly as a possible Hebrew sense, though the verse does not say why the place bears it.
ALSO GROWS
kesil: A fool.
כְּסִיל
This common noun gives the place name its direct association with folly.
kesilut: Foolishness.
כְּסִילוּת
This abstract form turns the same quality into a condition, extending the root’s sense beyond a person.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s names can compress the nature or defining event of a place or person into a word.
And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.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.Hormah shares the root חרם with “utterly destroyed” in this verse. Here the place is named after the act, so its name preserves the root’s sense of being set apart under the ban.
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