What Does Joshua 7:5 Mean in the King James?
And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
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 deeper blow is pursuit carrying the loss of thirty-six men into the people’s shared heart, which melts into water.
THE MEANING
Thirty-six men are struck down; the men fleeing are chased from the gate to Shebarim and struck on the descent, while the people’s shared heart melts into water. The verse shows violence crossing from bodies into a community’s inner center, where fear takes away firmness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a defeat wounds only those who are physically struck: pursuit turns individual losses into a shared collapse.
THE ROOT
וַיִּמַּס
wayyimmās
GROWS FROM
מָסַס
māsas
Melt, dissolve, lose firmness.
“melted” in this verse is wayyimmās. This root can describe a heart melting or being made to melt by another’s words; inward collapse and its cause belong to one word-family. Here the blow reaches beyond the men who fall: pursuit is followed by the people’s shared heart becoming water.
ALSO GROWS
hēmassû: They caused to melt; they dissolved or disheartened.
הֵמַסּוּ
In Deuteronomy 1:28, the people say their brethren melted their heart, showing the same root at work through words.
wayyimmās: And it melted; it dissolved.
וַיִּמַּס
Joshua 2:11 uses this form for hearts melting at the news of what is coming, joining fear to the same image of lost firmness.
שְׁבָרִים
shevārîm
GROWS FROM
שָׁבַר
shāvar
Break, fracture, shatter.
Shebarim carries the sense of “breakings” or “breaches,” from the root שבר, “break.” The chase passes through breakings, while the people’s heart becomes water: the route and the people both bear the fracture.
ALSO GROWS
shever: A break, fracture, breach, or ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
This noun carries the fracture contained in the place-name along the route of retreat.
nishbar: Broken or shattered.
נִשְׁבַּר
This form makes explicit the break carried by the root as the pursuit drives the men down the slope.
לְבַב
levav
GROWS FROM
לֵבָב
levav
Heart, the inward center.
English gives “hearts” in the plural, while the Hebrew says “the heart of the people,” a single center shared by the whole group. Thirty-six are struck, but the people’s one inner center loses its firmness and becomes water.
ALSO GROWS
lēv: Heart; the inner center.
לֵב
This shorter form names the same inward center that the verse presents as belonging to the people together.
levavkha: Your heart; the inward center of one person.
לְבָבְךָ
Deuteronomy 6:5 uses this form for an individual heart, making the verse’s singular “heart of the people” especially striking.
THE PATTERN
Danger or overwhelming news can carry a blow beyond bodies and into a whole people’s shared heart.
Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.THE THREAD
Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.The Hebrew word rendered “discouraged” comes from the same melt-root as “melted” in Joshua 7:5. There, other people’s words melt the heart; here, blows and pursuit are followed by the same dissolution across the people.
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