They utterly destroyed them, and their cities:— They utterly devoted them and their cities; Dr. Waterland. Houbigant agrees with Dr. Waterland in this translation, ipsorum urbes anathemate devovit; a translation which entirely removes all those difficulties wherewith the text is incumbered by the present version, expressing that they now anathematised, or devoted them and their cities to destruction, and when the cities came into their possession paid their vow; it being undeniable that what our text expresses was not the fact, as appears from Joshua 12:14. Judges 1:16-17; Judges 1:36. See Wall on the Place.
He called the name of the place Hormah— That is, anathema, or devotion: the word denotes a total separation of any thing or person from their former state and condition. This city of Hormah was situated in the south of Canaan.