What Does Judges 12:7 Mean in the King James?

And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

Judges 12:7 · 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

Jephthah’s Hebrew name means “he opens,” yet this verse measures his judging at six years and ends his life with death and burial.

THE MEANING

Here, authority has a measure: six years. The person carrying it remains mortal, and death and burial stand at the end of public rule.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that holding authority places someone beyond mortality. The verse gives Jephthah’s office six years and places his death immediately after it.

THE ROOT

יִפְתָּח

Yiftaḥ

GROWS FROM

פתח

Open; make an opening.

Jephthah’s name takes the form “he opens.” The same root can describe opening a hand as well as an entrance, so the name carries a motion of opening even as this verse records the end of his life.

ALSO GROWS

pāṯaḥ: To open.

פָּתַח

In Deuteronomy 15:8, the same verb appears in “open thine hand wide unto him”; opening can describe a hand being loosened toward another.

petaḥ: An opening or doorway.

פֶּתַח

This noun grows from the same root and shows how the verb’s action of opening also names the entrance itself.

וַיִּשְׁפֹּט

wayyišpōṭ

GROWS FROM

שפט

Judge, decide, govern.

The root links judging with the work of deciding and governing. “Judged Israel” names a public role, and the six years put a clear measure on that authority.

ALSO GROWS

shōfēṭ: A judge; one who decides or governs.

שֹׁפֵט

The title grows from the same root as “judged,” tying Jephthah’s action to the office he holds.

mishpāṭ: Judgment, decision, or justice.

מִשְׁפָּט

This branch shows the root’s reach from the act of judging to the decisions and order that shape communal life.

THE PATTERN

Human authority and service operate within mortal lives, and every tenure reaches an ending.

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

Ecclesiastes 3:2 · KJVDeath belongs within the measure of human life, just as Jephthah’s public service has a stated limit.

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Psalm 146:4 · KJVEven a person who holds power remains bound to the mortal ending described here.

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:

Acts 13:36 · KJVA life of service still reaches death, placing public work and mortality in the same frame.

THE THREAD

Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

Judges 2:16 · KJV

“Judged” here and “judges” there grow from the Hebrew root ⁨שפט⁩, shaphat, meaning to judge or govern. The connection places Jephthah’s six-year tenure within the recurring work of judges raised to deliver Israel.

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