What Does Judges 7:5 Mean?
So he brought the people down to the waters, and the LORD said to Gideon, Every one that lappeth the waters with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him you shall set by himself; likewise every one that kneels to drink.
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
So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.THE KEY
The dividing line is not who needs water, but how each body receives it.
THE MEANING
The same water is available to everyone, yet the way each person receives it makes a difference visible. The LORD’s instruction sets the one who laps apart from those who kneel to drink.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A shared need makes every response alike.
THE ROOT
יָלֹק
yaloq
GROWS FROM
לָקַק
laqaq
To lick or lap with the tongue.
Lappeth is יָלֹק (yaloq), from לָקַק (laqaq), meaning to lick or lap; the person and the dog are described with the same verb. That shared action becomes the measure by which the drinkers are distinguished, even though they approach the same water.
ALSO GROWS
laqaq: To lick or lap.
לָקַק
The verse uses this action for both the person and the dog, binding them to the same bodily verb.
melaqqeq: One who laps.
מְלַקֵּק
This derived form names the lappers as a group in the next verse, where their number is counted.
יִכְרַע
yikra
GROWS FROM
כָּרַע
kara
To bend, especially to bend the knee; by extension, to kneel.
“kneels to drink” in this verse is yikra. Boweth down renders יִכְרַע (yikra), from כָּרַע (kara), meaning to bend or kneel. Beside lapping, this root makes the contrast bodily and visible: people meet the same water in different postures.
ALSO GROWS
yikra: He bends or kneels.
יִכְרַע
This is the form used for the drinker who bends onto his knees.
korea: One who is bending or kneeling.
כֹּרֵעַ
This participle describes a person by the posture that distinguishes this group from the lappers.
לְבַדּוֹ
levaddo
GROWS FROM
בדד
badad
To be alone or separate.
לְבַדּוֹ (levaddo), meaning by himself or alone, carries the root בדד (badad), to be separate. The instruction turns a visible difference in posture into a person set apart from the rest.
ALSO GROWS
badad: Alone or apart.
בָּדָד
This form expresses separation, the condition the instruction creates for the selected drinker.
levad: Alone or by oneself.
לְבַד
This form is the basis of the verse’s wording that the person is placed by himself.
THE PATTERN
A hidden distinction becomes visible through the way people respond.
Then the LORD said to Moses, Look, I will rain bread for you from the heavens. The people shall go out and gather each day's portion on its day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my instruction or not.You will know them by their fruits. Do people gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?But someone will say, You have trust, and I have works. Show me your trust without your works, and I will show you my trust by my works.THE THREAD
And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men; but all the rest of the people knelt to drink the waters.The same Hebrew root לָקַק (laqaq), meaning to lick or lap, reappears in the word for “lapped” in verse 6. The count makes the function of that repeated verb visible: the act described at the water becomes the sorting line.
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