What Does Judges 15:13 Mean?
And they spoke to him, saying, No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hand, but surely we will not kill you. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
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 they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.THE KEY
Their promise not to kill Samson leaves the central violence untouched: they bind him and hand him over.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a promise of spared life beside a concrete loss of freedom: the men bind Samson with two new cords and place him into the Philistines’ hands. Reassurance and coercion occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The promise “we will not kill you” does not mean “we will not harm you”: the verse pairs it with binding and handover.
THE ROOT
אָסֹר נֶאֱסָרְךָ
ʾāsōr neʾesārəkā
GROWS FROM
אסר
ʾ-s-r
To bind, tie, or imprison.
“bind you fast” in this verse is ʾāsōr neʾesārəkā. The Hebrew doubles the root in the phrase “binding, we will bind you,” emphasizing the restraint before it happens. The same root names Samson’s bonds in the next verse, where they melt from his hands.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsîr: Prisoner or captive.
אָסִיר
The bound person becomes an ʾāsîr: the root links the act of binding with the condition it creates.
ʾĕsūrāyw: His bonds or restraints.
אֱסוּרָיו
Judges 15:14 uses this same root for the bonds that melt from Samson’s hands, carrying the binding in this verse directly into its undoing.
וּנְתַנּוּךָ
u-netanukha
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
“give you” in this verse is u-netanukha. Beneath “deliver” is the ordinary verb “give, set, place.” The wording makes the handover concrete: the men place Samson into the Philistines’ hands.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb beneath the handover: Samson is given or placed into their hands.
mattānāh: A gift or something given.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun carries the same “given” seed, showing how natan language marks a transfer from one hand to another.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats imposed bonds as real restraints, yet repeatedly shows them being broken or removed.
And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him, and the breath of the LORD rushed upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burned with fire, and the bonds tore loose from his hands.He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.And behold, the messenger of the LORD stood over him, and a light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, "Stand up quickly." And his chains fell away from his hands.THE THREAD
And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him, and the breath of the LORD rushed upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burned with fire, and the bonds tore loose from his hands.The word for “bind” here and the word for Samson’s “bands” there come from the same Hebrew root אסר (ʾ-s-r), “bind.” Verse 14 repeats that root for the restraints, then says they melt from his hands: the binding promised here is immediately undone.
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