What Does Judges 1:18 Mean in the King James?

Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.

Judges 1:18 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb means to capture: the verse names ground seized, while leaving open how completely or how long it is held.

THE MEANING

The verse names a real capture that reaches beyond each city to its border. In the same passage, Judah also meets a limit: it drives out the mountain’s inhabitants but cannot drive out those in the valley. Ground gained and power still bounded remain visible together for the reader now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Capturing a place means everything within it is permanently under your control.

THE ROOT

וַיִּלְכֹּד

vayilkod

GROWS FROM

לכד

l-k-d

to catch, seize, or capture

“took” in this verse is vayilkod. The same consonants turn agency around in Jeremiah 50:24: Judah captures here, while Babylon is “taken” by this verb there. The root names the act of seizure itself, leaving its duration and completeness to the surrounding lines.

ALSO GROWS

vayilkod: and he captured

וַיִּלְכֹּד

This is the active form used here: Judah is the one taking hold of the cities.

nilkadet: you were captured

נִלְכַּדְתְּ

Jeremiah uses the root in the passive for Babylon, showing that the one who seizes can also be seized.

גְּבוּלָהּ

gebulah

GROWS FROM

גבל

g-b-l

to mark a boundary; a boundary, border, or territory

“coast” in this verse is gebulah. The Hebrew word can name a boundary and the territory bounded by it. Repeated for Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron, it frames each capture as reaching beyond the city center to its surrounding territory.

ALSO GROWS

gebul: boundary, border, territory

גְּבוּל

The base word shows that “coast” here means the bounds or territory associated with each city, not only a seashore.

gebulah: its border or territory

גְּבוּלָהּ

This form attaches territory to each named city, extending the claim to its surrounding bounds.

THE PATTERN

Taking names a shift in control, while the text separately shows how far that control reaches and what remains beyond it.

Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

Joshua 17:12 · KJVIt distinguishes a claim over cities from the continued presence of people within them, keeping the reach of control in view.

And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

Judges 1:19 · KJVWithin this same account, successful driving out and an inability to drive out appear together, setting a limit beside the gains.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew 11:12 · KJVThe act of taking is named as forceful and contested, showing possession as something seized through struggle.

THE THREAD

I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.

Jeremiah 50:24 · KJV

Judges gives the active form: Judah captures. Jeremiah uses the same root in the passive for Babylon, making the catcher the caught and revealing that seizure can change direction.

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