What Does Judges 11:39 Mean?
And it was at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, and he did to her according to his vow which he had vowed, and she had known no man. And it became a statute in Israel,
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 it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,THE KEY
The private vow ends as a public custom, while the only fact named about her is that she knew no man.
THE MEANING
A promise can outlast the instant it is spoken and enter another person’s body and future. This verse names no detail of the act itself; it says the vow is fulfilled, that she knows no man, and that the outcome becomes a custom in Israel. The story leaves the cost visible and its exact form unresolved.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A vow made in sacred language is not automatically harmless: its fulfillment can leave another person bearing the cost.
THE ROOT
נִדְרוֹ
nidrō
GROWS FROM
נדר
n-d-r
To vow or dedicate by a solemn pledge; here, נֶדֶר (neder) means “vow.”
The Hebrew repeats the same root in the noun “vow” and the verb “vowed.” That joins the spoken pledge to its enactment in the verse’s wording.
ALSO GROWS
nadar: To vow or make a solemn pledge.
נָדַר
This is the verb behind “which he had vowed,” sharing its root with the noun for the vow.
neder: A vow or solemn pledge.
נֶדֶר
This is the noun behind “his vow,” showing the pledge and the act of vowing as one word-family.
יָדְעָה
yāḏəʿāh
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, perceive, or recognize by encounter; in “know a man,” it refers to sexual relations.
“had known no man” in this verse is yāḏəʿāh. The phrase “knew no man” uses a verb whose wider range is knowing and perceiving by encounter. Here the idiom records the consequence in terms of sexual intimacy and her relationship to men.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know, recognize, or perceive.
יָדַע
This is the verb’s base form, keeping the phrase’s sense of encounter and knowing in view.
da'at: Knowledge or awareness.
דַּעַת
This noun shares the knowing-root and shows its broader range beyond the intimate idiom.
חֹק
ḥōq
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To cut or inscribe; by extension, to prescribe or decree.
The verse calls what follows a חֹק (ḥōq, prescribed custom or statute), so the event enters a continuing practice in Israel. The root’s sense of inscription gives the ending the weight of something marked into collective memory.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāqaq: To cut in, inscribe, or decree.
חָקַק
This verb supplies the root’s image of marking something out, deepening the sense of a custom made to endure.
məḥōqēq: A lawgiver or ruler.
מְחֹקֵק
This related word connects the prescribed custom to the act of setting an order in place.
THE PATTERN
A vow carries speech into future action, and its consequences can reach beyond the person who speaks it.
And the men of Israel were pressed that day, for Saul had bound the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats bread until evening, so that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted any bread.Better that you not vow than that you vow and do not make it whole.But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.THE THREAD
And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, If you will surely give the children of Ammon into my hands,Here the vow first appears as the verb and noun from the same Hebrew root: נָדַר (nadar, “to vow”) and נֶדֶר (neder, “vow”). Their repeated root links the pledge spoken here to its fulfillment and its consequence in verse 39.
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