Bible Strands
2 Samuel 5:20
So David went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, the LORD has burst out against my enemies before me.” So he called that place Baal-perazim.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David speaks to his troops and the surrounding land immediately after routing the Philistines. He declares the battle’s outcome at Baal-perazim, the site where the LORD delivered the enemy into his hand.
The words — The location derives from בַּֽעַל־פְּרָצִים (Baʿal-perāṣîm), literally “lord of breaches,” drawn from David’s metaphor of a bursting flood. The root פָּרַץ (pāraṣ) denotes a sudden, forceful breakthrough that the text attributes directly to divine action.
The thread — Isaiah 28:21 recalls this battle when describing the LORD rising up “as at Mount Perazim” to execute judgment. The phrase becomes a fixed prophetic reference for God’s overwhelming intervention against opposing forces.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that military success stems from divine initiative, not human planning. It demands that victories be named and remembered as acts of God before the people.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And David came to Baal–perazim, and David smote them there, and said, The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal–perazim.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 28:21 For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.