What Does Judges 11:30 Mean?
And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, If you will surely give the children of Ammon into my hands,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,THE KEY
The request for deliverance is voiced as “giving, you will give,” picturing victory as placed into Jephthah’s hand.
THE MEANING
A desired outcome can already be bound to a promise whose terms are still unspoken. Here the request pictures victory as something given into the speaker’s hand, while the next verse reveals what the pledge will take. Desire and consequence occupy the same moment of speech.
THE ROOT
נָתוֹן תִּתֵּן
nātôn tittēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, place, or set.
The Hebrew pairs an infinitive absolute with the verb from the same root: “giving, you will give.” English “deliver” carries the action, while the Hebrew also pictures the victory as something placed into the speaker’s hand.
ALSO GROWS
nātôn: Giving; the infinitive absolute form used for emphasis.
נָתוֹן
It repeats the root before תִּתֵּן, intensifying the request: “giving, you will give.”
mattānāh: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root keeps the sense of giving visible beneath the act of handing victory over.
נָדַר נֶדֶר
nādār neder
GROWS FROM
נדר
n-d-r
To vow or pledge.
“made a vow” in this verse is nādār neder. The verb and noun share one root: Jephthah “vowed a vow.” The repeated seed makes the speech itself feel binding; the next verse supplies the pledge’s terms.
ALSO GROWS
nādār: To make a vow.
נָדַר
This is the verb describing the act of speaking the pledge.
neder: A vow or pledged thing.
נֶדֶר
This is the noun for what the verb creates: a spoken commitment with consequences.
יִפְתָּח
Yiftāḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
To open.
Jephthah’s name carries the sense “he opens,” from the root for opening. The vow opens a future whose terms and consequences unfold in the verses that follow.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
The verb carries the action compressed into Jephthah’s name.
pétaḥ: An opening or doorway.
פֶּתַח
This noun from the same root echoes the way the vow opens into an unfolding consequence.
THE PATTERN
A vow can join a requested outcome to a pledge that continues beyond the moment of asking.
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will guard me on this way I go, and will give me bread to eat, and a garment to wear,And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look upon the bending low of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but give your handmaid a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.And Paul remained yet many days, then took his leave of the brothers and sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow.THE THREAD
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will guard me on this way I go, and will give me bread to eat, and a garment to wear,The Hebrew root נדר (n-d-r, to vow) forms both the verb and noun in “vowed a vow,” and Genesis 28:20 repeats that same pair. Both verses place the vow beside an “if” request, so Genesis makes the shared root and conditional shape visible together.
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