What Does Judges 7:15 Mean?
And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he bowed down, and turned back to the camp of Israel, and said, Rise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hand.
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 it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.THE KEY
Gideon bows when the message lands, then calls the still-unseen victory a gift already placed in their hands.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you while the opposing force is still visible: a received word can change your posture and what you can name. Deliverance is spoken of as already given, though the outcome is not yet visible. The gap between promise and sight remains real, but it is no longer the whole story.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that you must see victory before you can recognize deliverance is undone here: Midian is called given while the opposing host still stands.
THE ROOT
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, put, or place.
“has given” in this verse is natan. Beneath “delivered” is the concrete gesture of giving: the verse says the LORD gave Midian into their hands. The victory is named as something placed in their hands before they can see its completion.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun makes the gift dimension of natan visible: what is given can be received before its full possession is seen.
natan: To put or set something in a place.
נָתַן
The same root can describe placing something before someone, illuminating the image of Midian being given into their hands.
וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ
wayyishtachu
GROWS FROM
שחה
To bow low or prostrate oneself.
“bowed down” in this verse is wayyishtachu. The word gives the response a bodily shape: Gideon lowers himself before returning to the camp. The bow stands at the hinge between hearing the message and speaking of what has been given.
ALSO GROWS
shachah: To bend low or bow down.
שָׁחָה
This is the root action beneath Gideon’s response, bringing the posture into view.
hishtachavah: To prostrate oneself or bow down.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This reflexive form shares the root and makes the lowering of the self explicit.
THE PATTERN
What is given can be named before its possession becomes visible, and that recognition changes the response.
See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take hold of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.And the LORD said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho, and its king, and the mighty men of strength.For God so loved the world that he gave his only-born Son, that everyone who leans their full weight into him should not perish, but have the life of the ages.THE THREAD
See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take hold of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.The words translated “set” and “to give” come from נתן (natan), the same root beneath “delivered” in Judges. Both verses hold the gift before the act of possession: what is given is already set before the receiver.
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