What Does Judges 16:11 Mean?
And he said to her, If they bind me tight with new ropes that have never been put to work, then I will become weak, and be like any other man.
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 said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.THE KEY
The ropes are a decoy: Samson’s repeated “bind me fast” makes restraint sound decisive while keeping the source of his strength out of sight.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the gap between what binds you outwardly and what defines your strength. Samson names fresh, unused ropes as the condition that would make him “as another man,” but the surrounding scene exposes that promise as a decoy. The restraint is real; his explanation of its effect is not.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an external restraint is enough to make a person powerless and ordinary.
THE ROOT
אָסוֹר יַאַסְרוּנִי
ʾāsōr yaʾasrûnî
GROWS FROM
אָסַר
ʾāsar
to bind, tie, or restrain
Hebrew repeats the binding verb, אָסוֹר יַאַסְרוּנִי (ʾāsōr yaʾasrûnî, “if binding they bind me”), so the English phrase “bind me fast” smooths away an audible root echo. From this same seed come the bound person and the bonds themselves: the verse makes the restraint vivid while leaving its claimed effect on Samson unproven.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsîr: prisoner, captive; the bound one
אָסִיר
The act of binding can name the person living under the restraint, showing how the root extends from an action to a condition.
ʾĕsûrāyw: his bonds, his restraints
אֱסוּרָיו
This same root names Samson’s bands in Judges 15:14, linking the proposed ropes here to restraints that later fall away.
THE PATTERN
A visible bond does not by itself reveal or extinguish the strength beneath it.
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.Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?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 Hebrew word for “bands” here comes from אָסַר (ʾāsar, bind), the same root repeated in “bind me fast” in Judges 16:11. This earlier scene shows the restraints holding Samson and then falling away, making clear that binding describes what is placed on him, not the source or measure of his strength.
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