What Does Judges 20:45 Mean?
And they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon; and they picked off five thousand men of them on the raised roads; and clung hard after them to Gidom, and struck down two thousand men 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 they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the pursuers “make them cling”, the chase closes the distance until flight itself is caught.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a vulnerable truth in the present: turning away from danger does not guarantee that danger stops following. The fugitives move toward wilderness and rock, yet the chase reaches them on the roads, where five thousand and then two thousand are killed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that getting away from the first blow means safety: here, the fleeing still face pursuit and death.
THE ROOT
וַיַּדְבִּיקוּ
wayyadbiqû
GROWS FROM
דבק
d-b-q
Dāvaq: to cling, adhere, or stick fast; in this causative form, to make contact or close up with someone.
“clung hard after” in this verse is wayyadbiqû. English gives the pursuit intensity; Hebrew gives it attachment. The pursuers close in until the fugitives cannot shake the violence.
ALSO GROWS
dāvaq: To cling, cleave, or adhere.
דָּבַק
This basic verb is also used for the man who cleaves to his wife in Genesis 2:24; here, the closeness becomes capture.
dāvēq: Clinging or attached.
דָּבֵק
This related form names a state of attachment, echoing how the pursuers stay on the fugitives’ path.
וַיְעֹלְלוּ
wayʿōləlû
GROWS FROM
עלל
ʿ-l-l
ʿĀlal: to glean, picking up what remains after the main harvest.
The verse uses a harvest word for killing men along the roads. That image makes the pursuit’s brutality plain: those who remain are picked off as though they were scattered gleanings.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālal: To glean or gather what remains.
עָלַל
This is the verb beneath “gleaned,” giving the pursuit the shape of collecting what has been left behind.
teʿōlēl: “You shall glean,” as in the instruction about a vineyard in Leviticus 19:10.
תְּעוֹלֵל
The vineyard use makes the harvest image visible; Judges applies that same word to men killed along the highways.
וַיָּנֻסוּ
wayyānusû
GROWS FROM
נוס
n-w-s
Nûs: to flee or escape.
“fled” in this verse is wayyānusû. Flight and refuge belong to the same word family: the movement is an attempt to get beyond danger. But the verse shows the fugitives’ distance failing to become safety.
ALSO GROWS
nûs: To flee or escape.
נוּס
This is the root action in the verse: the defeated turn and run toward the wilderness.
mānōs: Refuge or a place of escape.
מָנוֹס
The related noun appears as “refuge” in 2 Samuel 22:3; here, the fugitives seek refuge at the rock, but pursuit reaches them.
THE PATTERN
In scenes of violence, flight does not end the attack when pursuers close the distance.
And the Egyptians pursued after them, every horse and chariot of the Great House, and his horsemen, and all his army, and overtook them encamped by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.And the host of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his host was scattered from him.And Saul was consenting to his death. And on that day a great pursuit came against the assembly which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered through the lands of Judea and Samaria, except the sent ones.THE THREAD
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.“Cleave” and “pursued hard” share the root דבק (dāvaq, cling or adhere). Genesis uses this closeness for union; Judges uses its causative form for a relentless pursuit that catches fleeing people.
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