What Does Judges 11:36 Mean?
And she said to him, My father, if you have opened your mouth to the LORD, do to me according to what has come out of your mouth, since the LORD has avenged you on your enemies, the children of Ammon.
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 she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.THE KEY
The vow leaves the father’s mouth as speech and returns as a claim his daughter must bear.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a father’s victory over Ammon beside the cost his daughter bears under his vow. She names the vow as what has gone out of his mouth, and her words place her beneath its terms. Her exposure remains visible alongside his victory.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A father’s vow affects only himself; here, his daughter bears its consequence.
THE ROOT
יָצָא
yatsa
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, come forth.
“come out of” in this verse is yatsa. The verse pairs an opened mouth with what has gone out from it: the vow is pictured as an utterance that has crossed into the world. The same root appears in Numbers 30:2 for what proceeds from a person’s mouth, treating speech as something issued and actionable.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out, come forth.
יָצָא
This verb in the verse makes the father’s vow something that has left his mouth and entered the situation.
motsa: A going out; that which proceeds.
מוֹצָא
Deuteronomy 8:3 uses this noun for what proceeds from the mouth of the LORD, echoing the image of words as what comes forth from a mouth.
עֲשֵׂה
aseh
GROWS FROM
עשה
To do, make, act.
“do” in this verse is aseh. The Hebrew moves from יָצָא, what goes out, to עָשָׂה, what is done: the verse sets the spoken vow beside the action she asks her father to carry out. Speech exits, then action is named.
ALSO GROWS
ma’aseh: A deed, work, or action.
מַעֲשֶׂה
The same root can name a deed, showing the movement from his utterance toward an act.
oseh: One who does; a maker.
עֹשֶׂה
This form keeps the doer in view as the verse turns from the vow to what her father is asked to do.
THE PATTERN
Words vowed before God are treated as binding speech that becomes an obligation.
If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind a binding upon his living soul, he does not pierce his word; he does according to all that goes out of his mouth.When you vow a vow to God, do not linger to make it whole. For there is no delight in the thick-headed. Make whole what you have vowed. Better that you not vow than that you vow and do not make it whole.Before all things, my brethren, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no, lest you fall under judgment.THE THREAD
If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind a binding upon his living soul, he does not pierce his word; he does according to all that goes out of his mouth.The Hebrew verb translated “proceeded” in Judges and “proceedeth” in Numbers is יָצָא (yatsa), “to go out, come forth.” Numbers states the same movement directly: what goes out of the mouth is bound to be done, giving the daughter’s words their grim weight.
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