What Does Numbers 21:3 Mean?
And the LORD heard and responded to the voice of Israel, and gave the Canaanites into their hand, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction, and the name of that place was called Hormah, the devoted place.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 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.
“devoted to destruction” 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.
“gave into their hand” in this verse is wayyitten. 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.
“heard and responded to” 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 bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.And will God not set his own chosen straight, the ones who cry out to him day and night, though he is slow to heat with them?THE THREAD
When the LORD your God gives them before you, you shall strike them and devote them to destruction. You shall cut no covenant with them, nor show them favor.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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