What Does Judges 12:15 Mean in the King James?

And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites.

Judges 12:15 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Abdon’s name carries service, his father Hillel’s carries praise, and his burial is in Ephraim, a name tied to fruitfulness, so the ending remains threaded through names of service, praise, and fruitfulness.

THE MEANING

You see a life reach its boundary in concrete detail: Abdon dies, and his body is buried in a named town and terrain. Kinship and the names service, praise, and fruitfulness remain beside that ending, holding death and identity together in one line.

THE ROOT

עַבְדּוֹן

ʿAbdōn

GROWS FROM

ע־ב־ד

Serve; work.

Abdon’s name carries the root ⁨עבד⁩ (ʿ-b-d, serve or work), the same seed found in the verb for serving and the noun for a servant. Though the verse gives no account of his deeds, his name preserves service in the way his life is remembered.

ALSO GROWS

ʿāvad: To serve; to work.

עָבַד

The verb carries the basic action held within Abdon’s name.

ʿeved: Servant.

עֶבֶד

This noun makes the root’s idea of service a person, echoing the name in the obituary.

הִלֵּל

Hillēl

GROWS FROM

ה־ל־ל

Praise; celebrate.

Hillel’s name comes from the root ⁨הלל⁩ (h-l-l, praise), which also forms familiar calls to praise. The verse places this praise-bearing name directly in Abdon’s family line, even as it records Abdon’s death.

ALSO GROWS

hālal: To praise; to celebrate.

הָלַל

This verb names the action carried by Hillel’s name.

hallelu-yah: Praise Yah.

הַלְלוּ־יָהּ

The same praise-root is heard in this call, making the root in Hillel’s name audible as an act of praise.

אֶפְרָיִם

ʾEfrayim

GROWS FROM

פ־ר־ה

Bear fruit; be fruitful.

Ephraim’s name is associated with ⁨פרה⁩ (p-r-h, bear fruit or be fruitful). Here the name of fruitfulness belongs to the land that holds Abdon’s burial, placing that association beside the verse’s account of death.

ALSO GROWS

pārāh: To bear fruit; to be fruitful.

פָּרָה

This verb supplies the fruitfulness associated with the land’s name.

perī: Fruit; produce.

פְּרִי

The noun gives the root’s fruitfulness a tangible form, deepening the land-name association.

THE PATTERN

Scripture records death through both the body’s burial and the people or place connected to it.

But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

Genesis 35:8 · KJVDeborah’s burial, like Abdon’s, is attached to a particular place, and the site’s name keeps grief in the record.

And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

Judges 10:2 · KJVTola’s public service ends in the same direct sequence of death and burial in a named place.

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

Acts 8:2 · KJVStephen’s burial is carried out by others, showing the people who remain connected to a death.

THE THREAD

But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

Genesis 35:8 · KJV

Genesis 35:8 uses the same burial verb, ⁨קָבַר⁩ (qābar, “to bury”). In both verses, burial is attached to a precise place, so death leaves a geographical trace in the line.

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