What Does Judges 6:17 Mean?
And he said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, then make me a sign that you speak with me.
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 said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.THE KEY
Favor does not erase uncertainty here; it becomes the ground on which a sign is asked for.
THE MEANING
A claim of favor and a need for confirmation stand side by side. The speaker asks for a sign that makes the encounter recognizable. The request does not itself cancel the possibility of favor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a sincere relationship with God leaves no room for uncertainty or a request for confirmation.
THE ROOT
חֵן
chen
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥanan
to show favor or regard someone graciously
Chen, translated “grace,” means favor; its root also forms the verb for showing favor and the description “gracious.” The same seed moves between favor received, the act of extending it, and the quality of the one who extends it, so the sign is requested from within a relationship of favor.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānan: to show favor or act graciously
חָנַן
It names the active giving of the favor that chen names as received regard.
ḥannun: gracious; one who shows favor
חַנּוּן
It describes the character from which favor flows.
chen: favor, gracious regard
חֵן
It is the word in this verse: the favor the speaker says he has found in the other’s sight.
THE PATTERN
A sign makes an encounter or promise recognizable through something concrete.
I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be the mark of a covenant between me and the earth.And it shall come to pass, if they will not lean their weight on you, nor hear and respond to the voice of the first sign, that they will lean their weight on the voice of the latter sign.And truly Jesus did many other signs before the eyes of his disciples, which are not written in this book.THE THREAD
Make with me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be shamed, for you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.The Hebrew word translated “token” is אות (ʾot, sign or mark), the same word translated “sign” in Judges 6:17. The psalm widens the request: the sign makes help visible even to those who oppose the speaker.
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