What Does Judges 11:21 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
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
What the verse calls “delivered” is a transfer into someone’s hand, and that hand strikes and takes.
THE MEANING
A handoff of power is never abstract here: Sihon and his people are placed into Israel’s hand, struck, and their land is taken. The verse holds the transfer, the violence, and the change of possession in one unbroken line.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that “possessed” here means a quiet inheritance: this possession follows a blow against the people who inhabit the land.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
give, set, place
The verb is natan, give, set, place, so “delivered” pictures God placing Sihon and his people into Israel’s hand. The same root names a gift and something given; here, the transfer leads directly into military violence.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This branch shows that the root names the act of giving; in this verse, the giving is a transfer into military power.
naton: given, placed
נָתוּן
This form makes the placement within natan visible: Sihon and his people are set into Israel’s hand.
וַיַּכּוּם
wayyakkum
GROWS FROM
נכה
nakah
strike, smite
“smote” in this verse is wayyakkum. The handover does not remain bloodless: the next action is nakah, striking. The same root names both the blow and what is struck, keeping the violence inside the verse’s sequence.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: blow, wound, or plague
מַכָּה
This noun shows the mark left by the striking that follows the transfer.
mukkeh: one who is struck
מֻכֶּה
This form keeps the people on the receiving end of the blow in view.
וַיִּירְשׁוּ
wayyirshu
GROWS FROM
ירש
yarash
take possession, inherit, or dispossess
“possessed” in this verse is wayyirshu. Yarash can name possessing or inheriting, and also dispossessing. In this verse, the preceding blow makes clear that the taking of the land is not separate from the force used to gain it.
ALSO GROWS
yerushah: inheritance, possession
יְרֻשָּׁה
This branch shows possession as something received or held, echoing Israel’s taking of the land.
morashah: heritage, possession
מֹרָשָׁה
This branch brings out how possession can become an enduring claim to land.
THE PATTERN
Being placed in another’s hand transfers power; what the receiving hand does reveals what that transfer entails.
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:THE THREAD
And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.The same two Hebrew roots stand together: nakah names the striking, and yarash names taking or inheriting possession. Their sequence makes clear that the “possessed” land in Judges carries the force of the blow that precedes it.
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