What Does Judges 4:1 Mean?
And the children of Israel added again to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, when Ehud had died.
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 children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.THE KEY
The word translated “again” means “they added”, the old wrong is brought forward into the present.
THE MEANING
A familiar wrong can return to a community’s present after a major loss, and it remains fully seen by the LORD. Ehud’s death marks the moment beside the return, though the verse does not say it causes it.
THE ROOT
וַיֹּסִפוּ
wayyōsîp̄û
GROWS FROM
יסף
To add, increase, or continue; in context, to do again.
“added again to do” in this verse is wayyōsîp̄û. The verb comes from יסף, “to add,” so “again” carries the sense of bringing the old action into the present. The same root can describe another birth or appear in a name meaning “may he add”; the root itself is neutral, and what is added determines whether the scene brings life or repeats harm.
ALSO GROWS
wattōsep: “And she added”; rendered “again” in Genesis 4:2.
וַתֹּסֶף
The same root describes another birth, showing that it signals addition or repetition rather than moral direction.
Yôsēph: Joseph; a name connected with “may he add.”
יוֹסֵף
The name carries the same add or continue sense beyond this verb, making the root’s core meaning audible in another form.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents repetition as something added into the present, and what is added can bring life or repeat harm.
And she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd of sheep, but Cain was one who served the ground.And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.But it befalls them according to the proverb of truth, the dog turns back to his own vomit, and the washed sow goes back to her wallowing in the mire.THE THREAD
And she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd of sheep, but Cain was one who served the ground.The verb translated “again” in Judges comes from the same root as “again bare” in Genesis. The root means adding or continuing; what is added can be new life or a familiar wrong.
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