What Does Judges 13:20 Mean in the King James?
For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.
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 flame and the messenger rise by the same Hebrew verb, so the offering’s ascent and the messenger’s ascent become one movement.
THE MEANING
The scene places you between two movements: the altar flame and the LORD’s messenger rise toward heaven, while Manoah and his wife fall face-down to the ground. The encounter appears as a crossing that draws the human body down as the messenger goes up.
THE ROOT
עָלָה
ʿālāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, or ascend.
“went up / ascended” in this verse is ʿālāh. The verse uses this same root for the flame going up and the messenger ascending. Hebrew holds the two risings together, so the flame is not merely beside the messenger: both take part in one ascent from the altar toward heaven.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: Burnt offering; literally, that which rises.
עֹלָה
The offering’s name carries the language of ascent; here the altar flame and the messenger rise in the same movement.
ʿaliyah: Ascent, going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This noun makes the shared movement explicit: the verse’s repeated verb describes an ascent that joins altar, flame, and messenger.
מָנוֹחַ
Mānoaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
To rest, settle, or come to rest.
Manoah’s name carries the sense of rest. As the messenger rises, Manoah and his wife fall to the ground; his name’s language of coming to rest meets the body’s sudden stillness before what they see.
ALSO GROWS
menuchah: Rest, a resting place.
מְנוּחָה
This branch makes the rest embedded in Manoah’s name audible beside the couple’s halted, face-down posture.
Noaḥ: Noah; associated with rest.
נֹחַ
The name shares the root’s language of rest, reinforcing the nature carried in Manoah’s name.
THE PATTERN
Rising signs make an earthly encounter visible as movement toward God.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.THE THREAD
Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.The same Hebrew root עלה (ʿalah, rise or ascend) describes fire rising from the rock, and a messenger of the LORD is again present. The repeated image opens the flame in Judges 13:20 as a recurring sign of encounter.
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