What Does Judges 20:15 Mean?
And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities, twenty-six thousand men who grasped the sword, besides the settlers of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
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 the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “numbered” also carries the sense of mustering or attending to people: this count gathers bodies into a fighting force.
THE MEANING
The count gives the conflict a human scale: Benjamin’s 26,000 sword-bearers stand beside Gibeah’s 700 chosen men. Numbering gathers one group into an armed force, while “chosen” marks another as singled out within the same violence.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְפָּקְדוּ
vayyitpaqedu
GROWS FROM
פקד
paqad
To attend to, appoint, muster, or count; here, to muster or enroll.
English “numbered” can sound like a ledger entry. This root also carries the sense of attending to or mustering people, so the count gathers these men into an armed force; elsewhere, the same root describes visitation and attentive regard.
ALSO GROWS
paqid: An officer or overseer.
פָּקִיד
This related word shows the root extending into oversight and assigned roles, giving the muster an organized shape.
pequddah: A charge, appointment, or oversight.
פְּקֻדָּה
The count belongs to a wider family of words about attending to and assigning people, not just tallying them.
בָּחוּר
bachur
GROWS FROM
בחר
bachar
To choose or select.
“chosen” in this verse is bachur. The word marks Gibeah’s seven hundred as selected men, distinct from the larger number of sword-bearers. The root keeps the idea of selection inside the description: this group is singled out.
ALSO GROWS
bachar: To choose or select.
בָּחַר
The verb makes clear that “chosen” carries selection within its root, rather than serving only as a description of the men.
mivchar: A choice selection; the best or selected portion.
מִבְחָר
This related form echoes the verse’s distinction between the wider force and a group marked out within it.
THE PATTERN
The root פקד (paqad, attend to or muster) joins counting with attention: it can enroll a fighting force or describe visiting someone.
From twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall count them by their hosts.What is a frail one that you remember him, and the son of man that you visit him?Go, gather the elders of Israel, and say to them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt.THE THREAD
Go, gather the elders of Israel, and say to them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt.“Numbered” here and “visited” in Exodus share פקד (paqad, to attend to or muster). The same root holds together two kinds of attention: gathering men into a fighting force and seeing what is being done to a people.
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