What Does Joshua 7:12 Mean in the King James?
Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
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 retreat before the enemy begins with what remains under the ban inside the community.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to a community under pressure and names an inward condition alongside the force of its enemies. What remains under the ban within is bound to the whole group’s ability to stand. The verse places divine presence in direct tension with that condition, naming removal as the condition for presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that an outside enemy alone explains collapse dissolves here: what remains within the community can shape its ability to stand.
THE ROOT
לְחֵרֶם
ləḥērem
GROWS FROM
חרם
to place under a ban; to devote beyond ordinary use, often to destruction
Under “accursed” is the Hebrew category of something placed under the ban, outside ordinary use and reserved for destruction. The verse says this condition reaches the people as a whole, and that what is under the ban must be removed from their midst.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: Something devoted or banned, often for destruction.
חֵרֶם
This is the noun in the verse: the thing under the ban has become a condition affecting the whole community.
ḥāram: To place something under a ban or devote it.
חָרַם
The verbal form shows that the ban is an act of setting something apart from ordinary use, not merely a label for bad fortune.
לָקוּם
lāqûm
GROWS FROM
קום
to rise, stand, or establish
The verb קום (qûm, rise or stand) describes more than holding a posture; it can also name being established. The related מָקוֹם (māqôm, place) is a place or position, so the verse describes a people unable to hold their place before opposition.
ALSO GROWS
māqôm: A place or position.
מָקוֹם
The shared root links standing with the place one can occupy or hold.
hēqîm: To cause something to stand, raise it, or establish it.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows the root’s movement from standing to being made established.
יִפְנוּ
yiphnu
GROWS FROM
פנה
to turn, turn toward or away, direct the face
“turned” in this verse is yiphnu. The verse pairs inability to stand with a change of direction: the people turn their backs. פנה (pānâ, turn) carries the sense of facing toward or away, so their retreat is a directional reversal as well as a defeat.
ALSO GROWS
pānîm: The face, front, or visible presence of a person.
פָּנִים
The root’s turning image makes the direction of the face central; here, the people turn away and expose their backs.
pinnāh: A corner or turning point.
פִּנָּה
A corner marks a change of direction, echoing the verse’s account of the people turning back.
THE PATTERN
What remains within a community can shape whether the whole community stands.
Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.THE THREAD
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.Both verses use קום (qûm, rise or stand). Joshua describes a people unable to hold their place before enemies while what is under the ban remains among them; Psalm uses the same root for those who cannot stand in judgment. The shared word makes standing about remaining established under exposure, not posture alone.
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