What Does Judges 1:17 Mean in the King James?
And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called 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
The conquest is written into the city’s name: Hormah is Zephath remembered as a place devoted to destruction.
THE MEANING
The verse shows Judah and Simeon acting together as they kill the Canaanite inhabitants of Zephath and put the city under the ban of destruction. The name Hormah carries that violence forward as the city’s identifying memory. The text keeps the violence visible in both the deed and the name.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The place-name is a neutral label, separate from the violence done there; Hormah carries that destruction in its very name.
THE ROOT
וַיַּחֲרִימוּ
vayyaḥărîmû
GROWS FROM
ח־ר־ם
ḥ-r-m
To place under a ban, devote to destruction.
“utterly destroyed” in this verse is vayyaḥărîmû. The verb binds the killing to the language of חֵרֶם (ḥērem, the ban or a thing devoted to destruction). חָרְמָה (Ḥormāh, Hormah) carries that same root in the city’s name, so its name keeps the destruction in view.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: The ban; a thing devoted to destruction.
חֵרֶם
This noun names the same ban expressed by the verse’s verb, showing that the city is not merely defeated but placed under destruction.
Ḥormāh: Hormah, a place-name linked with the ban and destruction.
חָרְמָה
The city’s name preserves the fate described in the verse, binding the place to the act done there.
THE PATTERN
A place-name can preserve the event that marks the place.
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim.And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.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.Numbers uses the same root ח־ר־ם (ḥ-r-m, to devote to destruction) and gives the place the same name, חָרְמָה (Ḥormāh, Hormah). The echo makes the name a record of the destruction in both verses.
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