hormah

1 definition found

hormah - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Hormah
  banning; i.e., placing under a "ban," or devoting to utter
  destruction. After the manifestation of God's anger against the
  Israelites, on account of their rebellion and their murmurings
  when the spies returned to the camp at Kadesh, in the wilderness
  of Paran, with an evil report of the land, they quickly repented
  of their conduct, and presumed to go up "to the head of the
  mountain," seeking to enter the Promised Land, but without the
  presence of the Lord, without the ark of the convenant, and
  without Moses. The Amalekites and the Canaanites came down and
  "smote and discomfited them even unto Hormah" (Num. 14:45). This
  place, or perhaps the watch-tower commanding it, was originally
  called Zephath (Judg. 1:17), the modern Sebaiteh. Afterwards
  (Num. 21:1-3) Arad, the king of the Canaanites, at the close of
  the wanderings, when the Israelites were a second time encamped
  at Kadesh, "fought against them, and took some of them
  prisoners." But Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord utterly to
  destroy the cities of the Canaanites; they "banned" them, and
  hence the place was now called Hormah. But this "ban" was not
  fully executed till the time of Joshua, who finally conquered
  the king of this district, so that the ancient name Zephath
  became "Hormah" (Josh. 12:14; Judg. 1:17).