What Does Judges 16:19 Mean?
And she made him sleep upon her knees, and called for a man, and had him shave off the seven braids of his head. And she began to bend him low, and his strength turned aside from him.
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 she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.THE KEY
The verb for Delilah’s affliction is the same root Scripture uses for oppression, placing this intimate betrayal inside the Bible’s vocabulary of domination.
THE MEANING
The scene shows the instant vulnerability is exploited: she uses his sleep to remove his hair, begins to afflict him, and his strength leaves. His power does not make him untouchable; the verse holds the betrayal and its cost together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this scene breaks is that being powerful keeps you beyond another person’s reach.
THE ROOT
לְעַנּוֹתוֹ
le’annoto
GROWS FROM
ענה
to afflict, humble, or bring low
“bend him low” in this verse is le’annoto. The word carries the force of bringing someone low under another’s power. The same root names Sarai’s treatment of Hagar and the oppression of Israel, revealing a recurring vocabulary of domination beneath the English word “afflict.”
ALSO GROWS
‘ani: poor, afflicted, or brought low
עָנִי
This branch describes a person’s condition under affliction, linking the act done to Samson with the state it can leave someone in.
‘oni: affliction or misery
עֳנִי
This noun names the burden itself, echoing the oppression carried by whole communities as well as individuals.
THE PATTERN
The same language of affliction names a person being forced low and a people being crushed under another’s power.
But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your handmaid is in your hand. Do to her what is good in your eyes. And when Sarai bent her low, she fled from her face.Therefore they set over them taskmasters to bend them under their loads. And they built for Pharaoh storehouse cities, Pithom and Raamses.Before I am bowed low, I wander; but now I guard your word.THE THREAD
Therefore they set over them taskmasters to bend them under their loads. And they built for Pharaoh storehouse cities, Pithom and Raamses.The Hebrew verb translated “afflict” here shares its root with the verb in Judges 16:19. That shared word connects Samson’s intimate betrayal to Scripture’s language for oppression under another’s power.
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