What Does Judges 7:22 Mean in the King James?
And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Beth-shittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abel-meholah, unto Tabbath.
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 LORD’s decisive act is a repositioning: each sword is set against a fellow, and the host becomes its own battlefield.
THE MEANING
Here, the LORD turns every man’s sword against his fellow; the armed host collapses from within and flees through named places. Its weaponry becomes the means of its disintegration.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a force controls where its weapons point dissolves here: each man’s sword is turned against his fellow, and the host breaks into flight.
THE ROOT
וַיָּשֶׂם
wayyāśem
GROWS FROM
שים
ś-y-m
To put or place something in a position.
The verse describes the collapse through placement: each sword is set into a lethal relation with a fellow fighter. The English “set” holds that repositioning in view; the host’s own weapons become the instruments of its undoing.
ALSO GROWS
śûm: To put, place, or set.
שׂוּם
This form makes the concrete sense of “set” visible: something is brought into a position.
śîmû levavkhem: Set your heart; attend carefully.
שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם
The same verb can describe directing attention. Here, it describes the placement of weapons that turns the host inward against itself.
חֶרֶב
ḥerev
GROWS FROM
חרב
ḥ-r-b
To be laid waste or made desolate; the word-family also names the sword.
The sword’s consonants also appear in words for desolation and devastation. In this verse, the weapon is not merely carried by the host: its destructive force spreads through the host itself.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārav: To become desolate or be laid waste.
חָרַב
This branch names the ruin that the sword brings into the camp.
ḥōrev: Dryness or drought.
חֹרֶב
The same word-family carries the image of a landscape stripped of life, extending the sword’s destructive reach beyond the weapon itself.
וַיָּנָס
wayyānās
GROWS FROM
נוס
n-w-s
To flee or escape.
“fled” in this verse is wayyānās. The host’s defeat ends in flight: its members scatter from the violence now turned inward. This root also gives a word for refuge, linking flight with the search for escape.
ALSO GROWS
nās: Fled; takes flight.
נָס
This verb form names the movement of the host as its camp breaks apart.
mānōs: Refuge or escape.
מָנוֹס
The related noun shows flight as a search for a place of safety after the host can no longer hold together.
THE PATTERN
When conflict turns a force against itself, its own strength becomes the means of its collapse.
And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle: and, behold, every man’s sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture.For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:THE THREAD
And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle: and, behold, every man’s sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture.Both verses use חֶרֶב (ḥerev, sword) for the weapon turned against a fellow fighter. The repeated wording reveals the same mechanism: the camp’s own violence becomes the force that breaks it.
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