פּוּץ

From the study of Jeremiah 23:29

Range of meaning

To break, shatter, smash to pieces. The intensive forms stress complete breaking.

Against the English

BSB's “smashes” and NASB's “shatters” keep the violence. KJV and WEB's “breaketh in pieces” keeps the sense of fragments.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 16:12: God “shattered me.” Hab 3:6: the ancient mountains “were shattered” when God appeared.

From the study of Psalm 68:1

Range of meaning

To be scattered, dispersed, spread out; to overflow. It is used of routed armies (1 Sam 11:11: 'those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together'), of humanity dispersed at Babel (Gen 11:8–9), of sheep without a shepherd (Ezek 34:5), and of exile.

Against the English

'Scattered' is a good rendering. English readers may picture something gentle, like scattered leaves. The Hebrew picture is of a fighting force losing all cohesion.

Used elsewhere in the period

Numbers 10:35 (the source of this line); 1 Samuel 11:11; Genesis 11:4, 8. In the war poetry of the ancient Near East, the opposing army breaking and dispersing is the standard sign that the victorious god or king has simply appeared.

From the study of Ezekiel 11:16

Range of meaning

'Scatter, disperse', used of flocks, armies and peoples. The causative form is God scattering Israel as covenant judgment.

Against the English

'Scattered' is accurate in all versions.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 4:27 ('YHWH will scatter you among the peoples'), followed by 4:29 ('from there you will seek YHWH your God and find him'); Deut 28:64; Ezek 11:17; 20:34, 41; 36:19.