What Does Judges 12:10 Mean in the King James?

Then died Ibzan, and was buried at Beth-lehem.

Judges 12:10 · KJV

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

Bethlehem means “house of bread,” so this bare burial notice places a judge’s ending inside a name of sustenance.

THE MEANING

The verse lets death remain bodily and final: Ibzan dies, and his body is buried. You meet him now as a name held in memory and a body returned to its place, while Bethlehem’s name still speaks of bread.

THE ROOT

לֶחֶם

lechem

GROWS FROM

לחם

L-Ḥ-M

Food, bread

Bethlehem joins bayit, “house,” with lechem, “bread.” The verse sets Ibzan’s burial in a place whose name carries provision, letting the ending and the name stand together.

ALSO GROWS

lechem: Bread, food

לֶחֶם

This is the word inside Bethlehem’s name: the place is literally named for bread.

lechem ha-panim: Bread of the Presence

לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים

The same bread-word also names the bread set before God, showing how concretely food and sacred space meet in Hebrew.

THE PATTERN

The text marks death through the body’s burial.

Then died Ibzan, and was buried at Beth-lehem.

Judges 12:10 · KJVIbzan’s death is stated plainly, followed by the place where his body is buried.

And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre;

Genesis 25:9 · KJVAbraham’s death is held in view through the specific place where his sons lay his body.

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

Acts 8:2 · KJVStephen’s death is met through the concrete act of carrying his body to burial.

THE THREAD

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Beth-lehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 1:22 · KJV

Both verses name Bethlehem, “house of bread.” Ruth’s arrival at barley harvest makes the bread in that name vivid; here the same place holds Ibzan’s burial, and its name outlasts the life this verse closes.

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