What Does Judges 14:1 Mean?
And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
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 Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.THE KEY
Samson’s sight is part of his descent: the verse binds what draws his eyes to the direction his feet are already taking.
THE MEANING
Your attention can begin carrying you somewhere before you have spoken a choice. This verse holds that moment when you arrive, see someone beyond your familiar world, and the gaze begins to set a direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that seeing is always neutral, with no part in where you go next.
THE ROOT
וַיַּרְא
wayyar
GROWS FROM
ראה
to see, look, or perceive
“saw” in this verse is wayyar. The Hebrew root ראה (ra’ah, to see or perceive) reaches beyond a bare glance: its branches include the one who sees and what appears to sight. Here, Samson’s seeing is a movement in the verse, not a detail detached from where he has gone.
ALSO GROWS
ro’eh: one who sees; a seer
רֹאֶה
The same root makes the act of seeing a way of perceiving, giving weight to what captures Samson’s attention.
mar’eh: appearance; what is seen
מַרְאֶה
This branch names the visible appearance that meets the eye, linking the one who sees with what draws the gaze.
re’iyah: seeing; sight
רְאִיָּה
This noun preserves the act of seeing as a thing in itself, the first movement the verse brings into focus.
וַיֵּרֶד
wayyered
GROWS FROM
ירד
to descend; go down
“went down” in this verse is wayyered. The verse begins with ירד (yarad, to descend) before it introduces what Samson sees. The descent gives the sight a direction: he does not simply notice someone; he sees her on the way down to Timnah.
ALSO GROWS
yeridah: descent; going down
יְרִידָה
This noun keeps the movement of ירד visible, making the verse’s first action a descent.
yored: one who goes down; descending
יוֹרֵד
This form describes someone in the act of descending, placing Samson’s movement inside the same root family.
THE PATTERN
What the eye attends to can begin a chain from seeing toward desire and action.
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.When I saw among the plunder a good mantle from Shinar, and two hundred weights of silver, and a tongue of gold of fifty weights, then I desired them and took them. And look, they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver beneath it.THE THREAD
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.Both verses use ראה (ra’ah, to see or perceive), the same Hebrew root. Genesis shows sight moving into taking; Judges pauses at Samson’s sight, just before the next verse reveals what that seeing begins to ask for.
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