Numbers - 31:10



10 All their cities in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burnt with fire.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Numbers 31:10.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
And all their cities, and their villages, and castles, they burned.
and all their cities in their settlements and all their encampments they burned with fire.
and all their cities, with their habitations, and all their towers, they have burnt with fire.
And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelled, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
And after burning all their towns and all their tent-circles,
Both their cities and their villages, as well as their fortresses, they burned.
Omnes quoque urbes eorum per habitationes eorum et omnes, aedes combusserunt igni.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Goodly castles - Rather, both here and in Genesis 25:16, hamlets. The word is derived from a word טוּר ṭûr,) signifying "a row" or "range" (compare Ezekiel 46:23); and probably indicates those collections of rude dwellings, made of stones piled one on another and covered with tent-cloths, which are used by the Arabs to this day; and which are frequently mentioned as douars in narratives of the French campaigns in Algeria. These dwellings would be formed usually in a circle. See the word "Hazeroth," in Numbers 11:35.

And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, &c. ) So far as they went into the country, which, perhaps, might not be the whole land of Midian:
and all their goodly castles with fire; which were either the palaces of their princes and nobles, or such like great personages; or they were fortified places, for the security of their cities and country: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan interpret them of their houses of worship, their temples, and their altars.

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