What Does Judges 1:26 Mean in the King James?
And the man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz: which is the name thereof unto this day.
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 city changes location, but its spoken name carries Luz’s identity into a new land.
THE MEANING
A city is built in unfamiliar land and called Luz; the verse places that name in the present with “unto this day.” Moving into new ground does not erase the identity carried by the name.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A new beginning requires the old identity to disappear. Here, the city built in another land receives the name Luz.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָא
wayyiqrāʾ
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call, proclaim, summon; also read aloud.
“called” in this verse is wayyiqrāʾ. The man does not merely attach a label: he calls the name into the city’s identity. This same root is heard in words for reading and calling aloud, giving the name Luz a voice that remains “unto this day.”
ALSO GROWS
miqra: Reading, proclamation, or an assembly called together.
מִקְרָא
It shows how calling can gather people around words that are spoken and heard.
qeri’ah: Calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
It echoes the verse’s spoken naming: Luz is proclaimed as the city’s name.
THE PATTERN
A spoken name can mark identity through a change of place or life.
And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.THE THREAD
And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.Both verses use קרא (qaraʾ, to call or proclaim) for naming. Genesis says the place later called Bethel was first Luz; Judges shows Luz spoken over a city built in another land, so the same name crosses a change of place.
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