What Does Judges 7:11 Mean?
And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall grow strong to go down to the camp. Then he went down with his servant Phurah to the edge of the armed men who were in the camp.
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 thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.THE KEY
Here, hearing what is said inside the threat makes the hands firm enough to move toward it.
THE MEANING
You can hear what is being said within the situation you fear, and that hearing can steady you for the next step. The danger remains in view, yet your capacity to approach it changes before you enter it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that fear must disappear before you can move is undone here: firmness comes through hearing while the threat is still present.
THE ROOT
תֶּחֱזַקְנָה
teḥĕzaqnah
GROWS FROM
חזק
To be strong or firm, to strengthen, to prevail, or to take hold.
“grow strong” in this verse is teḥĕzaqnah. This root gathers becoming strong and taking hold under one seed. Hearing comes just before the hands become firm, linking what reaches the ear with the capacity to meet what comes next.
ALSO GROWS
heḥĕzîq: Hold fast; take hold.
הֶחֱזִיק
The same root can describe a firm grip, showing how strength becomes readiness to grasp the next step.
ḥazaq: Be strong; become firm.
חֲזַק
This form names firmness as a state that can arise, not only as force applied from outside.
וְשָׁמַעְתָּ
veshamata
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“hear” in this verse is veshamata. This root gathers hearing, attentive listening, and heeding under one seed; a report itself can be named as something heard. The verse places that reception just before the hands become firm, linking what enters by hearing with the capacity to move.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen, heed.
שָׁמַע
The root gives the verse a kind of hearing that can take in and attend to what is said.
shemuʿah: A report, news, or tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
The words heard are a report received from inside the place of fear, and they precede a change in readiness.
THE PATTERN
What is heard can give trust and courage a body, firming the hands for action.
And when Asa heard and responded to these words, and to the prophecy of Oded, the prophet, he took firm hold of himself, and turned aside the loathsome idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD, which was before the porch of the LORD.But Jesus, overhearing the word that was spoken, at once said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only lean your full weight."So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
Hold fast, and let your heart be firm, all who wait for the LORD.In the Psalm, חִזְקוּ (ḥizqû, “be strong”) comes from חזק (ḥ-z-q; ḥazaq, “be strong, become firm”), the same root behind “strengthened” here. The root joins firm hands in Judges with a firm heart in the Psalm.
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