What Does Judges 11:13 Mean in the King James?
And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
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 demand links peace to restitution: the disputed land must come back before the settlement can be called whole.
THE MEANING
When loss is named, its resolution can involve returning what is claimed to have been taken; peace may depend on the terms of the dispute. This demand names territory rather than asking for quiet alone. בְּשָׁלוֹם (b’shalom, “in peace / wholeness”) holds that return alongside a vision of wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that peace means only ending the confrontation. Here, peaceful settlement is tied to a concrete demand for return.
THE ROOT
הָשִׁיבָה
hashivah
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
Turn back; return.
The verb translated “restore” carries the image of causing something to return, rather than making something new. The demand frames peace as bound to the return of the land the speaker says was taken.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Return; turn back.
שׁוּב
This is the root’s basic movement, which gives “restore” its sense of bringing something back.
teshuvah: Return; turning.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes the demand’s direction clear: the response to a claimed taking is a turning back.
בְּשָׁלוֹם
b’shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
Be whole; be complete.
The word translated “peaceably” belongs to a root whose sense includes wholeness and completeness. Its connection to repayment gives the verse an echo between restoring what is claimed taken and reaching a settlement.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch reveals the wholeness beneath the verse’s language of peace.
shillem: Repay; recompense.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch links the same root to making good what is owed, resonating with the demand for return.
THE PATTERN
Restoration returns what has been displaced or depleted toward wholeness.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.THE THREAD
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.The same Hebrew root behind “restore” in Judges appears here as “return”: what has been displaced is pictured as coming back. Leviticus connects that return to both possession and family, opening the demand toward a wider restoration.
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