What Does Judges 3:21 Mean?
And Ehud stretched out his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and drove it into his belly.
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 Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:THE KEY
The hand Ehud “put forth” is described with שָׁלַח (shalach, send out), a verb that can also name release, though here its outward force is lethal.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps the violence concrete: Ehud extends his left hand, takes the dagger from his right thigh, and drives it into a belly. Each movement makes the agent, the weapon, and the wound visible together.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
wayyišlaḥ
GROWS FROM
שָׁלַח
shalach
Send out, stretch out, release.
“stretched out” in this verse is wayyišlaḥ. “Put forth” can sound like a simple reach, but the Hebrew verb carries the sense of sending something outward. The same root can describe release; here the hand is sent into a deliberate, lethal act.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: Sending away; release or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch shows that the root’s outward movement can end in release, while in this verse the hand’s movement ends in violence.
Shiloach: Sent; the name behind Siloam, glossed as “Sent” in John 9:7.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name links the same root to water associated with restored sight, showing how differently an outward sending can affect what it reaches.
THE PATTERN
שָׁלַח (shalach, send out or release) names outward movement, while the result depends on what is sent and where it goes.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.Judges uses שָׁלַח (shalach, send out) for Ehud’s hand being extended; John connects Siloam with “Sent,” from the same root family. One outward-sending word appears beside a lethal thrust here and waters associated with sight there.
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