What Does Judges 6:31 Mean?
And Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you strive for Baal? Will you deliver him? Whoever strives for him, let him die while it is still morning. If he is a god, let him strive for himself, because one has torn down his altar.
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 Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.THE KEY
The verse turns deliverance upside down: Baal’s worshipers are asked to deliver the power they claim can deliver them.
THE MEANING
The verse exposes the contradiction in devotion that must rescue its god: the people are ready to plead Baal’s case and deliver him, while he is challenged to contend for himself. Joash then threatens death for Baal’s advocate, turning the crowd’s lethal demand back on its defender. The question remains sharp now: if the supposed source of deliverance needs saving, what can it deliver?
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A god can be truly powerful even when people must defend and rescue him.
THE ROOT
תּוֹשִׁיעוּן
tôšîʿûn
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver, rescue, bring to safety.
The root behind “save” also appears in יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance) and יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, a name rooted in deliverance). Here the crowd is asked to deliver Baal, reversing the expected direction: the supposed source of deliverance becomes the one in need.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance, rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
This is the same root family as the verb used when the crowd is asked whether it will deliver Baal.
Yeshua: A name rooted in the idea of deliverance.
יֵשׁוּעַ
The name shares the root that this verse applies ironically to Baal: deliverance is what his worshipers are asked to provide for him.
יָרִיב
yārîv
GROWS FROM
ר־י־ב
r-y-b
Contend, dispute, bring a case.
“strive” in this verse is yārîv. “Plead” can sound like speaking on someone’s behalf, but ריב carries the force of entering a dispute or case. Its repetition makes Baal’s divinity the issue under contention: will people argue his case, or will he contend for himself?
ALSO GROWS
riv: A dispute, case, or contention.
רִיב
This is the root’s core sense, making the crowd’s defense of Baal sound like a case they must carry for him.
merivah: Quarreling or contention.
מְרִיבָה
This related form shows the same root can name an open conflict, as the crowd’s accusation becomes a contest over who can act.
THE PATTERN
What must be carried, defended, and rescued by its worshipers cannot act as the source of their deliverance.
They lift him on the shoulder, and bear him, and set him in his place, and he stands; from his place he does not move. Even if one cries to him, he does not answer, nor deliver him from his narrow place.Those who make them are like them, everyone who leans on them.Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, for he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.THE THREAD
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.The Hebrew root י־ש־ע (y-sh-ʿ, deliver) names the LORD’s deliverance here, while Judges applies that same root to the crowd’s offer to rescue Baal. The contrast sharpens Joash’s question: the source of deliverance is not the one who needs rescuing.
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