What Does Judges 10:16 Mean in the King James?
And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
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 pictures God’s living soul shortened by Israel’s toil, making their constriction something he feels within himself.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two movements together: what divides the people is put away, and they serve the LORD. Their toil reaches God’s own living soul, which the Hebrew describes as shortened under their misery.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that suffering leaves God untouched: the verse depicts Israel’s toil pressing upon his own living soul.
THE ROOT
וַתִּקְצַר
vattiqtsar
GROWS FROM
קצר
qatsar
To be short or become shortened; in a related use, to reap or cut grain.
The phrase is וַתִּקְצַר נַפְשׁוֹ (vattiqtsar nafsho, his living soul became shortened): the English “grieved” carries an image of constriction. נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul) names what is affected, so Israel’s toil is portrayed as pressing into God’s own life.
ALSO GROWS
miqqotser: Shortness
מִקֹּצֶר
Exodus 6:9 uses this form with רוּחַ (ruach, breath) in the phrase KJV renders “anguish of spirit”; there, bondage leaves Israel short of breath, while here Israel’s toil shortens God’s living soul.
qatsir: Harvest or reaping
קָצִיר
This word shares the root’s cutting sense: grain is cut down at harvest. That branch gives the shortening image a concrete edge without reducing the verse’s grief to a figure of speech.
THE PATTERN
Human distress does not remain outside God’s attention; it presses into divine compassion.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.THE THREAD
And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.Exodus uses מִקֹּצֶר רוּחַ (miqqotser ruach, shortness of breath) for Israel’s distress under bondage; Judges uses the same root, קצר (qatsar, become short), for God’s response to their toil. The shared word makes their constriction and his inward grief echo each other.
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