What Does Judges 15:8 Mean?
And he struck them down leg upon thigh with a great slaughter, and he went down and settled in the top of the rock Etam.
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 he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.THE KEY
The Hebrew holds “he struck” and “a great blow” in one root family, making the slaughter the unfolding of the strike itself.
THE MEANING
You encounter the violence at full scale: the blow is bodily, leg upon thigh, and is named as a great slaughter; then the striker withdraws to dwell in a cleft. The retreat follows the violence without undoing it; both remain in the same line.
THE ROOT
וַיַּךְ
wayyak
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
to strike, smite
“smote / great slaughter” in this verse is wayyak. The verb וַיַּךְ (wayyak, “he struck”) is followed by מַכָּה (makkāh, “blow”), both from נכה (n-k-h, “strike”). The verse’s action and its great blow belong to one word family, keeping the violence bodily rather than abstracting it as victory.
ALSO GROWS
nākâ: to strike, smite
נָכָה
This verb names the force Samson uses in the verse.
makkāh: blow, wound, plague
מַכָּה
This noun names the blow’s result; the action and its devastating impact share the same root.
THE PATTERN
A blow is measured by what it sets in motion beyond its point of impact.
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and stretched out his hand, and took it, and struck down a thousand men with it.Thus says the LORD, In this you shall perceive that I am the LORD. Look, I will strike the waters that are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.Then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night; for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered apart.THE THREAD
And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and stretched out his hand, and took it, and struck down a thousand men with it.The verb וַיַּךְ (wayyak, “he struck”) returns from נכה (n-k-h, “strike”), the same root behind מַכָּה (makkāh, “blow”) in this verse. Here the blow is given a count, one thousand, so the earlier “great slaughter” opens into its scale.
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