What Does Judges 3:17 Mean?
And he brought the gift to Eglon king of Moab. And Eglon was a very fat man.
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 brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.THE KEY
Eglon’s name is built on the Hebrew word for “calf,” and the verse makes that animal image visible by describing him as very fat.
THE MEANING
Power appears here as a body: tribute stands before a ruler whose name and extraordinary fullness make him impossible to keep abstract. The verse holds office, gift, and flesh together in one scene.
THE ROOT
עֶגְלוֹן
ʿEglon
GROWS FROM
עגל
ʿ-g-l
Calf or young bovine.
Eglon’s name is formed from the root for “calf.” Beside the description of his fullness, the name and body echo each other, making his physical presence part of how the verse depicts power.
ALSO GROWS
ʿegel: Calf.
עֵגֶל
This is the root word carried in Eglon’s name.
ʿeglah: Heifer.
עֶגְלָה
This related word keeps the root’s animal image present beside the ruler’s name.
בָּרִיא
bāri
GROWS FROM
ברא
bara
The related verb means “create” or “bring into being”; this adjective means robust, healthy, or fat.
The Hebrew word carries a shade of robustness and health as well as bodily size, giving “fat” a sense of conspicuous fullness. The same word family describes well-fed cattle, so the image connects the ruler’s body with visible abundance.
ALSO GROWS
bārāʾ: Create or bring into being.
בָּרָא
This related verb gives the word family a sense of something formed or brought forth.
bəri’ot: Robust or fat; used of the cows in Genesis 41.
בְּרִיאוֹת
This related form shows the same fullness applied to healthy-looking animals.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives abundance a visible body, making fullness part of how prosperity and power appear.
And, behold, there came up out of the river seven cows fair in shape and sound of flesh, and they grazed among the reeds.But Jeshurun, the Straight One, grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, you grew thick, you were covered in fatness; then he let go of God who made him, and made light of the Rock of his deliverance.And bring the grain-fed calf and slaughter it, and let us eat and be glad.THE THREAD
And, behold, there came up out of the river seven cows fair in shape and sound of flesh, and they grazed among the reeds.The Hebrew word בָּרִיא (bāri), used of Eglon’s fullness, belongs to the same word family as the description of the well-fed cows in Pharaoh’s dream. In both verses, fullness becomes something the eye can see.
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