What Does Judges 20:48 Mean?
And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the mouth of the sword, both the men of every city and the beast, and all that came to hand; also they burned all the cities where they came.
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 men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.THE KEY
The word translated “set on fire” comes from shalach, send forth, release, so here violence is sent outward until it reaches people, animals, and entire cities.
THE MEANING
The verse shows violence turning back and spreading beyond fighters to animals, everyone found, and whole cities. The sword reaches bodies; the fire consumes dwellings, leaving no boundary around the destruction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that violence can stay confined to its intended target is undone here: the slaughter reaches every person and animal in range, and the fire takes the cities.
THE ROOT
שִׁלְּחוּ
shillĕḥu
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ל־ח
shalach
To send, send forth, release, or let go.
“burned” in this verse is shillĕḥu. The verb rendered “set on fire” is a form of shalach, followed by “in fire”: the cities are sent into flame. The root can also mean release, but here what is sent forth is destruction, spreading from people and animals to the cities.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: An act of sending away or releasing.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It shows the root’s motion of sending outward; in this verse that motion carries fire into the cities.
Shiloach: A name associated with waters described as sent forth.
שִׁלֹחַ
The same root can describe something sent outward as water; here it is fire that moves outward through the cities.
שָׁבוּ
shavu
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ו־ב
shuv
To turn, return, or turn back.
“turned again” in this verse is shavu. The verb names a return or turn, but it does not itself mean repair or restoration. What follows fixes the direction of this turn: it leads back into slaughter and burning.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn back or return.
שׁוּב
It is the root verb behind the verse’s “turned again,” placing the renewed violence in the motion of a return.
teshuvah: A turning back or return.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This related form makes the root’s central image of turning visible; in this verse, the turn carries no promise of repair.
THE PATTERN
When violence spreads beyond its intended target, it reaches people, living things, and the places they inhabit.
And he overturned those cities, and all the plain, and all who settled in those cities, and what sprouted from the ground.And Hazael said, Why does my lord weep? And he answered, Because I perceive the evil you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds ablaze, slay their young men with the sword, dash their little ones, and split open their women heavy with child.Then Herod, when he perceived that he had been mocked by the wise men, burned with rage, and sent forth and killed all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time he had carefully learned from the wise men.THE THREAD
Then the LORD said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews. Let my people go, that they may serve me.Exodus uses the same root, shalach, when Pharaoh is told to release the people; Judges uses it for sending cities into fire. The root’s motion is sending forth, while its object and direction show whether that movement opens a way out or carries destruction.
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