What Does Judges 13:10 Mean in the King James?
And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day.
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 Hebrew for “appeared” comes from “see,” so the verse moves from what she perceives to what she makes known.
THE MEANING
The man she encountered before appears to her again, and she hurries to tell her husband. What she sees passes into speech and becomes something another person can receive.
THE ROOT
נִרְאָה
nirʾāh
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look at, or perceive; in this form, to be seen or appear.
The verb beneath “appeared” is ראה, “to see,” and its form here can mean “be seen” or “appear.” The root ties the man’s appearing to the woman’s seeing: this is an encounter as she perceives it.
ALSO GROWS
raʾah: To see, look at, perceive
רָאָה
The verb “appeared” belongs to the same family as “see,” keeping the event tied to perception.
marʾeh: Sight, appearance, vision
מַרְאֶה
Judges 13:6 uses this same root for the man’s appearance, linking this encounter to the woman’s earlier description.
וַתַּגֵּד
vat-taggēd
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
To declare, tell, or make known.
Though KJV renders it “showed,” the Hebrew verb carries the sense of telling or making known. Her perception becomes a report her husband can receive.
ALSO GROWS
higgīd: Told, declared, reported
הִגִּיד
This is the same verb form used for her telling her husband about the encounter.
maggīd: One who tells or declares
מַגִּיד
The same root can name a teller, showing how the encounter moves outward through a spoken report.
THE PATTERN
What one perceives or encounters becomes testimony another person can hear.
Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.THE THREAD
And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?Both passages draw on ראה: Judges describes the man as appearing to the woman, while Genesis holds together God who sees and Hagar’s own seeing. The shared root opens appearance into perception and being seen, rather than a bare arrival.
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