What Does Judges 11:18 Mean in the King James?
Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.
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 verse treats a detour as real progress: the route keeps moving while the boundary remains uncrossed.
THE MEANING
You can move forward by circling what you do not enter; the path does not have to cut through every territory. Here the route reaches Arnon and stops at Moab’s border, where movement and restraint meet.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Forward movement always requires going straight through whatever lies ahead.
THE ROOT
וַיָּסָב
wayyāsov
GROWS FROM
סבב
s-b-b
To turn around, go about, or surround.
English makes compassed sound like an old word for traveling around; the Hebrew root also carries the sense of turning and going about. The route’s circling is movement in its own right, even as it avoids crossing Moab’s border.
ALSO GROWS
saviv: Around or all around.
סָבִיב
This branch makes the circling movement in the verse visible in the root itself.
sovev: Turning about or surrounding.
סוֹבֵב
This active form echoes the route’s turning around the land rather than passing through it.
THE PATTERN
A route can keep moving while honoring a boundary.
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;THE THREAD
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.Numbers 21:4 uses the same root, סבב (s-b-b, to turn or go around), for the route around Edom. Its repetition sharpens the distinction here: going around is movement, while crossing the border is a different act.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us