What Does Judges 13:8 Mean?
Then Manoah pleaded with the LORD and said, O my Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come again to us, and point us toward what we shall do with the child who shall be born.
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
Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.THE KEY
Manoah asks to be taught before the child arrives because care for a new life begins with receiving direction, not pretending to already know the way.
THE MEANING
When something new is coming into your care, you can ask for direction before you know what it needs. Manoah’s prayer holds uncertainty without pretending expertise: the next action can be taught.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You have to know how to care for what is coming before it arrives.
THE ROOT
וְיוֹרֵנוּ
veyorenu
GROWS FROM
ירה
To point or direct; also to throw or cast.
“point us toward” in this verse is veyorenu. The verb carries the sense of pointing someone toward a way, so teaching here is direction for action. תּוֹרָה (torah), meaning instruction, shares this root: Manoah asks for guidance toward what to do for the child.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction that shows a way.
תּוֹרָה
It shares the root of “teach,” revealing instruction as direction for living and acting.
moreh: One who teaches or directs.
מוֹרֶה
This branch makes the teacher’s role vivid: to point the learner toward a way forward.
THE PATTERN
When the next step is unclear, direction is received before action is taken.
Show me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.And now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.But the One who comes alongside, the Set-Apart Breath, which the Father will send in my nature, that one will teach you all things and will remind you of all that I said to you.THE THREAD
And now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.The same Hebrew root, יָרָה (yarah), meaning to point or direct, appears in “teach thee.” Manoah asks what to do for the child; here, the promise is instruction for what to say, bringing the root down to the next concrete act.
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