What Does Judges 16:8 Mean?
Then the rulers of the Philistines brought up to her seven moist cords that had never been dried, and she bound him with them.
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
Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.THE KEY
The trap begins as a rehearsal: the rulers supply the cords, and intimacy becomes the instrument that tests the binding.
THE MEANING
Here, organized power reaches Samson’s body through cooperation: the Philistine rulers supply fresh cords, and Delilah binds him with them. The restraint is physical and deliberate, carried out by the person who receives the tools from those seeking his capture. The word for binding belongs to the language of captivity, so this attempt is already a rehearsal of seizure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Closeness by itself does not guarantee safety; here, intimacy is the route through which restraint reaches the body.
THE ROOT
וַתַּאַסְרֵהוּ
wattasrēhû
GROWS FROM
אסר
אָסַר (ʾāsar) means to bind, tie up, or restrain.
The verb rendered “bound” is וַתַּאַסְרֵהוּ (wattasrēhû, she bound him), from אָסַר (ʾāsar, bind). The same root appears in אָסוּר (ʾāsūr, bound) and אֲסִיר (ʾāsîr, prisoner), joining the act of tying to the condition of captivity. English presents a binding; Hebrew lets that act open directly into imprisonment.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsūr: bound, restrained
אָסוּר
This form names the condition produced by the binding in the verse.
ʾāsîr: prisoner, captive
אֲסִיר
This branch shows where the act of binding leads: a person held in captivity.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats restraint as a physical mechanism of power and its undoing as a concrete act.
The LORD is in alignment; he has cut the cords of the wicked.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 Joseph's master took him, and placed him in the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound; and there he was in the prison.Genesis uses the same Hebrew root אָסַר (ʾāsar, bind) for the prisoners held in Joseph’s jail. The shared word makes the restraint here part of scripture’s concrete vocabulary for captivity: a hand acts on a body, and confinement follows.
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