What Does Judges 19:25 Mean?
But the men would not hear and respond to him; so the man held fast his concubine, and brought her out to them, and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning; and when the dawn went up, they sent her away.
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
But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.THE KEY
The verse uses “know” for sex, then names the all-night assault plainly, stripping the word of any gentle reading.
THE MEANING
This verse shows a woman brought out to attackers, sexually violated through the night, and sent away at dawn. The men control each step: one brings her out, and the others hold, abuse, and release her. Dawn marks when they stop, not that she is restored.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that an assailant’s release of a victim means rescue: they send her away only after choosing to brutalize her through the night.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּדְעוּ אֹתָהּ
wayyēdəʿû ʾōtāh
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, perceive
“knew her” in this verse is wayyēdəʿû ʾōtāh. The Hebrew verb yada, “know” or “recognize,” is used here for sex. With her seized and abused throughout the night, the word names the attackers’ forced bodily access; it does not make the encounter mutual.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding, perception
דַּעַת
This branch names knowing as knowledge or understanding; here, the explicit violence keeps the sexual use from being mistaken for consent.
môdaʿ: Acquaintance, kinsman
מוֹדָע
This branch names someone known or connected, showing that the root of knowing describes a relation but does not guarantee care or consent.
וַיְשַׁלְּחוּהָ
wayšalleḥûhā
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
To send out, dispatch, release
“sent her away” in this verse is wayšalleḥûhā. The Hebrew verb translated “let her go” is shalach, “send out” or “release,” with the men as its agents and her as the one they dispatch. The word describes their decision to end the assault and send her away; it does not say she is safe or restored.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away, dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This form of the send-root can describe sending a wife out of a household; here, the root keeps the men’s agency in view as they send her away.
mishloach: Sending, dispatch; something sent
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
This noun names the act of dispatch itself, showing how “let her go” can describe sending someone away without saying they are safe or free.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names sexual coercion through the acts imposed on a woman’s body, rather than making the encounter sound mutual.
And when Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and bent her low.But if a man finds the pledged young woman in the field, and the man grips her and lies down with her, then the man alone who lay down with her shall die.But he would not hear and respond to her voice, and, gripping her harder than she, bent her low, and lay with her.THE THREAD
Then he called his servant who attended him, and said, Send this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.The Hebrew behind “Put ... out” is shalach, the same send-root translated “let her go” here. In both scenes, men decide when a woman is sent away after sexual violence; that departure does not erase what they have done.
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