What Does Judges 14:17 Mean in the King James?

And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people.

Judges 14:17 · 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

The phrase “lay sore upon him” comes from a verb of pressing: the riddle leaves his keeping through constriction.

THE MEANING

Sustained grief and pressure can make a guarded answer leave the person holding it. Once he gives it, the knowledge moves through her to her people, so what was private becomes communal. The verse leaves the pressure and the disclosure visible together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Withholding an answer guarantees it will stay private. This verse shows pressure can carry guarded knowledge beyond the person who holds it.

THE ROOT

הֱצִיקַתְהוּ

hetsiqathu

GROWS FROM

צוק

tsuq

To press, constrain, or distress.

“lay sore upon him” in this verse is hetsiqathu. The verb gives pressure a physical shape: it closes around what someone is keeping back. The answer comes out as the space to withhold it narrows.

ALSO GROWS

metsuqah: Distress or trouble.

מְצוּקָה

The related noun names the distress that comes with being pressed into a narrow place.

matsuq: A strait or constricted place.

מָצוֹק

This branch makes the root’s sense of pressure spatial: distress is a narrowing.

וַתַּגֵּד

vatagged

GROWS FROM

נגד

ngd

To bring into view or make known; to declare.

“told” in this verse is vatagged. The verse uses this root for both Samson’s telling her and her telling her people. What begins as disclosure between two people is set before a wider community.

ALSO GROWS

maggid: One who tells or announces.

מַגִּיד

This branch names the person who brings something into speech for others to hear.

neged: In front of or opposite.

נֶגֶד

The shared root connects telling with placing something before another person.

THE PATTERN

Sustained urging can bring a guarded response into disclosure or action.

That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

Judges 16:17 · KJVAfter the pressure described in the preceding verse, Samson gives Delilah the secret he has kept back.

And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not.

2 Kings 2:17 · KJVPersistent urging moves Elisha from refusal to the action the group requests.

But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

Luke 24:29 · KJVThe travelers’ insistence turns a passing encounter into an invitation accepted.

THE THREAD

And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

Judges 16:16 · KJV

Both scenes use ⁨צוק⁩ (tsuq), meaning to press or constrain. Here and in the later scene with Delilah, pressure closes around what Samson is keeping until he gives it up.

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