What Does Judges 6:29 Mean?
And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And when they searched out and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.
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 they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.THE KEY
The deed is called davar, a “thing” that is also a “word”, and the town’s search turns it into Gideon’s name spoken aloud.
THE MEANING
What happens around you can move from an unnamed thing into public knowledge as people seek its source. The answer attaches the deed to a name, making the hidden act legible among those around you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that an act stays unknowable simply because its maker was not seen dissolves here: persistent inquiry brings the deed and its doer into the open.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word, matter, or thing.
The same Hebrew noun appears twice for “thing,” and it also means “word” or “matter.” The deed becomes something people seek out and speak about, until they attach Gideon’s name to it.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the repeated word translated “thing” in the verse.
dibber: Spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form from the same root shows how a matter can become something spoken aloud.
וַיִּדְרְשׁוּ
wayyidreshu
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire, or investigate.
“searched out” in this verse is wayyidreshu. The Hebrew says they sought or investigated. Paired with the following verb, baqash (“seek, request”), it depicts people pursuing the source of the act until they identify its doer.
ALSO GROWS
darash: To seek or inquire.
דָּרַשׁ
This is the root verb behind “enquired.”
midrash: Inquiry, study, or exposition.
מִדְרָשׁ
This related noun carries the root’s sense of seeking into a sustained examination.
גִּדְעוֹן
Gidʿon
GROWS FROM
גדע
To hew down or cut off.
Gideon’s name is commonly connected with gadaʿ, “to hew down.” When the townspeople name him as the doer, his name echoes the cutting-down act that has become public.
ALSO GROWS
gadaʿ: To cut down or hew off.
גָּדַע
This verb gives the root sense associated with Gideon’s name.
geduʿim: Hewn down; cut down.
גְּדוּעִים
This related form shows the root describing what has been cut down.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden becomes knowable as it is searched out, exposed, and named.
The weight of God is to hide a matter; the weight of kings is to search out a matter.For nothing is hidden that will not be made visible, nor anything concealed that will not be known and come into the light.Saying, "What shall we do to these men? For indeed a known sign has come to be through them, and it is visible to all who settle in Jerusalem, and we cannot say no to it.THE THREAD
The weight of God is to hide a matter; the weight of kings is to search out a matter.Both verses use דָּבָר (davar) for “thing” or “matter,” a word that also means “word.” Proverbs names the search for a matter; here the search ends when the matter is spoken with Gideon’s name.
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