What Does Judges 13:2 Mean?
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was uprooted, and did not bear.
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 there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.THE KEY
The word translated “barren” is linked to a root meaning “to uproot,” giving the absence of birth the image of something pulled from its place.
THE MEANING
The verse names the absence plainly: she is barren and has borne no child. The word for barren carries an image of uprooting, while Manoah’s name carries the sense of rest; the sentence holds both meanings without resolving them.
THE ROOT
עֲקָרָה
ʿăqārāh
GROWS FROM
עקר
ʿ-q-r
To uproot or pull out by the roots.
“uprooted” in this verse is ʿăqārāh. The word for barrenness is associated with the image of uprooting. English names the condition, while the Hebrew word also carries an image of something removed from its place.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāqār: Barren or infertile, masculine form.
עָקָר
This related form shows the same root naming barrenness across grammatical forms.
ʿăqārāh: A barren woman.
עֲקָרָה
Isaiah 54:1 uses this same form, creating a direct root-level link to its address to the barren one.
יָלְדָה
yāləḏāh
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
To bear, give birth, or beget.
“did not bear” in this verse is yāləḏāh. The phrase “bare not” uses the root that also names the child born and the generations that follow. The act of bearing and what comes from it share one linguistic seed.
ALSO GROWS
yālaḏ: To bear or beget.
יָלַד
This is the verb behind “bare not,” naming the absent act directly.
yeleḏ: A child.
יֶלֶד
The same root names the child whose birth the verse says has not occurred.
tōləḏōṯ: Generations or offspring.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
The root reaches beyond a birth to the generations that can proceed from it.
מָנוֹחַ
mānōaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
n-w-ḥ
To rest, settle, or come to rest.
Manoah’s name is connected with rest or a resting place. The verse places that name beside a word associated with uprooting, holding the two images together without explaining them away.
ALSO GROWS
nūaḥ: To rest or settle.
נוּחַ
This verb gives the root sense carried by Manoah’s name.
mənūḥāh: Rest or a resting place.
מְנוּחָה
This related noun makes the name’s connection to rest concrete as a place of repose.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names barrenness plainly while placing it beside the emergence of life.
Those who are full hire themselves out for bread, and the hungry stop until the barren one bears seven; and she who has many children withers.He settles the uprooted woman in the house, a glad mother of children. Praise the LORD.And behold, your kinswoman Elisabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month for her, she who was called unyielding.THE THREAD
Ring out, O unrooted one who did not bring forth; burst open into a ringing cry, and lift your voice, you who did not writhe in labor, for many are the children of the emptied one, more than the children of the mastered wife, says the LORD.Isaiah repeats the same Hebrew words rendered “barren” and “didst not bear” in Judges 13:2. The shared wording places the condition named here beside an address to the barren one as a singer.
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