What Does Judges 20:9 Mean?
But now this is what we will do to Gibeah; we will go up against it by lot.
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 now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;THE KEY
The lot gives the attack a procedure, while the Hebrew calls the plan דָּבָר (davar, word or matter), joining what is spoken to what is done.
THE MEANING
The verse places a collective decision at the moment it becomes a plan: the group chooses an attack on Gibeah and uses a lot to structure it. Procedure gives the action an assigned shape, but the action remains an attack. The Hebrew word rendered “thing” also means “word” or “matter,” keeping the announced plan close to what the group intends to do.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; its related noun also means word, matter, or thing.
English “thing” can sound like a neutral object, but דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) also belongs to the family of דִּבֵּר (dibber, spoke). The plan is named both as an utterance and as a matter for action, keeping the words and intended deed close together.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The KJV’s “thing” carries the same Hebrew noun that can mean “word,” placing the declared plan and the matter to be done in one term.
dibber: Spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root, revealing the speech connection within the word rendered “thing.”
THE PATTERN
A lot turns a shared uncertainty into a particular outcome.
And Saul said, Let the lots fall between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was seized.The lot is thrown into the lap, but all its judgment is from the LORD.And they cast their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven sent ones.THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Judges uses גּוֹרָל (goral, lot) to structure an attack; Psalm 16:5 uses the same word for the share the LORD maintains. The shared word lets “by lot” carry the sense of an allocated portion.
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