What Does Judges 15:2 Mean?
And her father said, I truly thought you had utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Take her, I pray you, instead of her.
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 her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “instead” means “in her place,” turning the younger daughter into someone offered to occupy the older daughter’s position.
THE MEANING
The father explains that he gave one daughter to another man because he thought Samson hated her, then offers her younger sister in her place. Neither daughter speaks in the verse; the exchange is narrated through the choices of the men who claim authority over them.
THE ROOT
תַּחְתֶּיהָ
taḥteha
GROWS FROM
תחת
Under, beneath; by extension, in the place of.
“instead of her” in this verse is taḥteha. The Hebrew is spatial: the younger sister is proposed as occupying the older sister’s place. That connection sits inside “instead,” making the offer a reassignment, not simply a new offer of marriage.
ALSO GROWS
taḥat: under, beneath
תַּחַת
The basic spatial sense of the word family also carries the idea of being in someone’s place.
taḥtav: under him; in his place
תַּחְתָּיו
This form shows the same spatial word used for substitution, as in Genesis 4:25’s “instead of Abel.”
taḥteha: under her; in her place
תַּחְתֶּיהָ
This is the form used in the verse: the younger sister is offered to take the older sister’s place.
וָאֶתְּנֶנָּה
va'ettenennah
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“gave” in this verse is va'ettenennah. The father describes the transfer with a verb from the root נתן (natan), which means “give,” “set,” or “place.” The same root can name a gift, but here it describes the father’s act; the verse gives no voice to the daughter being given.
ALSO GROWS
natan: give, set, place
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind “I gave her,” making the father the grammatical actor in the transfer.
mattanah: gift, present
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the same root of giving; its presence in the word family makes the verse’s language of transfer especially visible.
אָמֹר אָמַרְתִּי
amor amarti
GROWS FROM
אמר
Say, speak.
The phrase rendered “I verily thought” repeats the root אמר (amar), “say”: literally, “saying, I said.” The emphatic wording puts the father’s own account at the center of his explanation, while the daughters remain unheard in this line.
ALSO GROWS
amar: say, speak
אָמַר
This is the root used in the father’s statement that he “thought.”
omer: one who says; saying
אֹמֵר
This form from the same root keeps the connection between thought and speech visible.
imrah: utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
This noun shares the root and shows how the verse’s “thought” belongs to a word family centered on speech.
THE PATTERN
A custom or personal explanation can be used to make a woman’s reassignment sound settled.
And Laban said, It is not done so in our place, to give the little one before the firstborn.But it came to pass, at the time of giving Merab, Saul's daughter, to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.And I say to you, Whoever sends away his wife, except for fornication, and takes another, commits adultery, and whoever takes her who has been sent away commits adultery.THE THREAD
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and called his name Seth, the placed one, for she said, God has placed for me another seed in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.The same Hebrew word תַּחַת (taḥat), “under” or “in place of,” appears in both verses. In Genesis it names a new child in Abel’s place; here it names a younger sister offered in her older sister’s place.
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