What Does Numbers 31:53 Mean in the King James?

(For the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.)

Numbers 31:53 · 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

A shared battle does not dissolve the instinct to claim its gains as private property.

THE MEANING

You can be inside a shared struggle and still find each person claiming the gain for himself. Common effort alone does not make what is won common.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that striving together automatically means sharing the result.

THE ROOT

בָּזְזוּ

bāzəzû

GROWS FROM

בָּזַז

bāzaz

To plunder, to seize as spoil

The verb behind “had taken spoil” names plundering, a forceful taking, rather than neutral receiving. The words “every man for himself” make the outcome individual: a common victory becomes many private claims.

ALSO GROWS

baz: Booty, plunder

בַּז

This noun names what remains after the taking, linking the act of plunder to the spoil each man claims.

bizzah: Spoil, booty taken in war

בִּזָּה

This related word keeps the capture visible in the goods themselves: the spoil is the yield of seizure, not a neutral possession.

THE PATTERN

The division of what is gained reveals whether its benefit stays with individuals or extends across a community.

For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.

1 Samuel 30:24 · KJVThe battle’s gains are shared with those who stayed behind, extending the benefit beyond the fighters.

Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.

Psalm 68:12 · KJVThe spoil reaches someone who did not fight, showing that its distribution can cross the boundary between combatants and others.

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

Acts 4:32 · KJVWhat individuals possess is treated as common to the community rather than held as each person’s private claim.

THE THREAD

I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Isaiah 10:6 · KJV

Isaiah uses the same ⁨בָּזַז⁩ (bāzaz) root family in “to take the prey.” That echo sharpens the closing phrase here: the taking can happen through a collective effort while the spoil is claimed man by man.

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