What Does Judges 16:27 Mean?
Now the house was full of men and women, and all the rulers of the Philistines were there. And upon the roof there were about three thousand men and women, watching while Samson made them laugh.
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
Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.THE KEY
The Hebrew word behind Samson’s “sport” is laughter, placing a captive’s humiliation inside a crowd’s entertainment.
THE MEANING
This verse names a pattern alive now: a crowd can turn a captive person’s humiliation into entertainment. The word rendered “sport” is laughter, and thousands watch Samson; their looking becomes part of the spectacle.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that humiliation belongs only to the person who inflicts it: the thousands watching also sustain the spectacle.
THE ROOT
שְׂחוֹק
śeḥōq
GROWS FROM
שׂחק
ś-ḥ-q
To laugh, play, or make sport; the scene determines whether the laughter is joyful or derisive.
“laugh” in this verse is śeḥōq. English “sport” can sound like harmless amusement, but שׂחק (ś-ḥ-q) spans laughter, play, and mockery; here the laughter is inseparable from the captive’s humiliation. The same root names laughter in restoration, so the scene tells what that laughter is doing.
ALSO GROWS
laughter: Laughter; in Psalm 126:2 it fills the mouth alongside singing.
שְׂחוֹק
The same Hebrew noun describes the crowd’s “sport” here and laughter that accompanies restoration there.
laughs: He laughs; in Psalm 2:4 the one seated in the heavens laughs at those defying him.
יִשְׂחָק
This verb shows how the root can carry derision as well as joy, depending on the scene.
THE PATTERN
Public humiliation deepens when a crowd turns the suffering person into something to watch.
All who see me mock me; they open their lips, they shake the head.And the people stood watching. And the rulers with them also turned up their noses at him, saying, He delivered others; let him deliver himself, if he is the Anointed One, the chosen of God.THE THREAD
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a ringing cry. Then they said among the nations, The LORD has grown great in doing with these.Psalm 126:2 uses the same Hebrew noun, שְׂחוֹק (śeḥōq), meaning “laughter.” There it fills a mouth alongside singing; in Judges, the same word marks the entertainment drawn from Samson’s public humiliation. The shared root holds both scenes together while their different settings shape the laughter.
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