What Does Judges 11:32 Mean in the King James?

So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.

Judges 11:32 · 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

“Delivered” is the concrete act of giving: the verse pictures victory as the LORD placing an opposing force into a fighter’s hand.

THE MEANING

When conflict becomes action, the verse names the crossing and the fight, then locates the decisive transfer of power with the LORD. The hand receives power for violence; the wording leaves that violence fully visible.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that victory belongs only to the fighter’s strength is unsettled: the verse names the LORD as the one who gives the opposing force into his hand.

THE ROOT

וַיִּתְּנֵם

vayyittenem

GROWS FROM

נתן

n-t-n

give, set, place

The Hebrew verb carries the concrete sense of giving or placing the opponents into a human hand. The same root can describe a gift or something set in place, so “delivered” here holds a precise transfer of power, with violent consequences.

ALSO GROWS

mattanah: gift

מַתָּנָה

This noun keeps the act of giving visible in a word for what is given.

nātûn: given, placed

נָתוּן

This form names the state produced by giving or placing; the verse shows opponents put into someone’s hand.

THE PATTERN

Scripture presents power in conflict as something given into human hands, while leaving the human action that follows visible.

And he said unto them, Follow after me: for the LORD hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over.

Judges 3:28 · KJVAs in Judges 11:32, victory is expressed as the LORD giving an enemy into someone’s hand, followed by a concrete act of conflict.

And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

Exodus 23:31 · KJVThe verse again describes the outcome as the LORD placing the inhabitants into human hands, then names the force used against them.

Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

John 19:11 · KJVHere too, power is received from above, while the verse keeps responsibility for what people do with that power in view.

THE THREAD

Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

Deuteronomy 2:24 · KJV

The Hebrew verb behind “I have given” is ⁨נָתַן⁩ (natan, give), the same root as “delivered” here. In both verses, the outcome is placed “into the hand,” making the transfer of power concrete.

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