What Does Numbers 21:3 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 Hebrew root for “utterly destroyed” returns in the name Hormah, so the place carries the violence in its name.
THE MEANING
Israel’s voice is heard, the Canaanites are handed over, and Israel utterly destroys them and their cities. Hormah names the place in the wake of that destruction; the verse leaves the violence explicit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that being heard by God means the answer is gentle for everyone in its path: here, Israel’s answer is followed by the total destruction of another people and their cities.
THE ROOT
וַיַּחֲרֵם
wayyaḥărēm
GROWS FROM
חרם
ḥ-r-m
To place under the ban; here, to devote to destruction.
“utterly destroyed” in this verse is wayyaḥărēm. The Hebrew verb shares its root with Hormah, the name given to the place. The naming ties the act to the landscape, leaving the destruction present in the place’s name.
ALSO GROWS
ḥerem: A person or thing placed under the ban, devoted or forbidden.
חֵרֶם
This noun shows the status carried by the verb: the people and cities are placed under the ban.
Hormah: A place-name formed from the same root, associated with destruction.
חָרְמָה
The name echoes the root of “utterly destroyed,” joining the place to the act.
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew verb holds a transfer: the Canaanites are given over, and the next clause states the brutal outcome of that handover. “Delivered up” carries this concrete act of placing into another’s power.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind the handover in the verse.
mattanah: A gift, or something given.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun shows the root’s basic sense of giving; here, what is given over is a people.
וַיִּשְׁמַע
wayyišmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
š-m-ʿ
To hear and respond.
“hearkened” in this verse is wayyišmaʿ. The root connects hearing with response. Here, the hearing is followed by action, though the answer is devastating for the people handed over.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form carries the same joining of hearing and response.
shomea: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
It keeps the focus on hearing as an active relation, which the verse follows with action.
THE PATTERN
A cry heard by God is followed by action with real consequences for everyone caught in its path.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?THE THREAD
And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:Numbers’ verb for “utterly destroyed” and Deuteronomy’s phrase “utterly destroy” share the root חרם (ḥ-r-m). Deuteronomy makes the root’s force explicit, destruction without covenant or mercy, so Hormah’s name carries a concrete act, not an abstraction.
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