What Does Judges 18:10 Mean?
When you come, you will come to a people leaning on nothing, and to a land broad to the hands, for God has given it into your hands, a place where nothing in the earth is lacking.
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
When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth.THE KEY
The verse calls the land wide and lacking nothing while naming its inhabitants secure, so its promise of abundance already contains the question of whose safety is being traded for it.
THE MEANING
You hear the land promised as broad and free of lack, and the people already on it described as secure. The same sentence claims that God has placed the land into the speakers’ hands. Its promise of plenty keeps another people’s vulnerability in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A promise of abundance does not make a land empty of other people; the verse names them as secure before claiming the land is given into someone else’s hands.
THE ROOT
רַחֲבַת
raḥavat
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be wide, grow broad.
“land broad to the hands” in this verse is raḥavat. The phrase רַחֲבַת יָדַיִם (raḥavat yadayim, “broad of hands”) pictures the land as spacious, not merely sizable. The root רחב makes the promise sound like room opening up, even as the verse describes land where another people already lives securely.
ALSO GROWS
raḥav: Wide, broad.
רָחָב
This form makes explicit the wideness carried by the land’s description.
merḥav: An open or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This noun carries the same root into the idea of room or expanse, a meaning echoed by the verse’s promise of a large land.
מַחְסוֹר
maḥsor
GROWS FROM
חסר
To lack or be deficient.
“nothing in the earth is lacking” in this verse is maḥsor. “No want” is the absence of מחסור (maḥsor, lack), not simply the presence of wealth. The wording promises a place where nothing is missing, sharpening the contrast between abundance for the speakers and the security of the people already there.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaser: To lack, be deficient.
חָסֵר
This verb states the condition that מחסור names: something is missing.
ḥesron: Lack, deficiency.
חֶסְרוֹן
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s claim of “no want” a claim of no deficiency.
בֹּטֵחַ
bōṭēaḥ
GROWS FROM
בטח
To trust, feel secure or rely confidently.
“a people leaning on nothing” in this verse is bōṭēaḥ. The people are described with a form of בטח, a root that can carry both trust and security. Their security is part of the verse’s wording even as the land is described as given into someone else’s hands; the promise does not make those inhabitants disappear.
ALSO GROWS
bāṭaḥ: To trust, rely.
בָּטַח
This verb shows the root’s sense of placing confidence or reliance.
mivṭaḥ: Security, confidence; a place of refuge.
מִבְטָח
This noun brings the root’s sense of security into focus beside the verse’s description of a people at ease.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures abundance as room widening beyond lack or constraint.
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.O Corinthians, our mouth is open toward you, our heart is widened.THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Judges describes a broad land as abundant territory; the psalm uses the same רחב root for being set in a large place after distress. The shared word lets “large” also carry the sense of room opening up, while the question of whose room expands remains visible in Judges.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us