What Does Judges 19:8 Mean?
And he rose early in the morning on the fifth day to go away; and the young woman's father said, Prop up your heart, I pray you. And they tarried until the day leaned, and they did eat both of 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
And he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart: and the damsel’s father said, Comfort thine heart, I pray thee. And they tarried until afternoon, and they did eat both of them.THE KEY
What the KJV calls “comfort” is an appeal to sustain the heart, and the meal that follows makes that support tangible.
THE MEANING
A departure can feel settled, yet another person’s appeal can prolong it. Here, the appeal is to support the heart, and the shared meal makes that support tangible while the leaving waits.
THE ROOT
סְעָד
seʿad
GROWS FROM
סעד
To support or sustain.
“Prop up your heart” in this verse is seʿad. The appeal is not only to soothe an emotion: the Hebrew verb סעד (sāʿad, “support, sustain”) carries the sense of holding someone up. The meal that follows gives that support a bodily form as the departure is delayed.
ALSO GROWS
sāʿad: To support, sustain.
סָעַד
This verb names the action the father asks for: the heart is something that can be upheld.
seʿudah: A meal or feast.
סְעוּדָה
This related word for a meal echoes the root’s sense of sustenance, linking support with the food shared before departure.
THE PATTERN
Provision sustains the heart while a journey or departure waits.
And I will take a morsel of bread, and prop up your hearts. After that you shall pass on, for therefore you have crossed over to your servant. And they said, So you shall make it, as you have spoken.And the messenger of the LORD turned back a second time, and touched him, and said, "Rise and eat, for the road is too great for you."Then they all took heart, and they also took food.THE THREAD
And I will take a morsel of bread, and prop up your hearts. After that you shall pass on, for therefore you have crossed over to your servant. And they said, So you shall make it, as you have spoken.The verb סעד (sāʿad, “support, sustain”) appears in the appeal to “comfort” the heart in both verses. Genesis makes the link to food explicit: bread sustains the travelers before they continue, just as a shared meal follows the appeal here.
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