What Does Judges 14:3 Mean in the King James?
Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
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
Samson’s desire does not merely please him; it carries the force of a verdict: she is right in his eyes.
THE MEANING
A preference can become its own verdict: she is right in Samson’s eyes, while his parents name a boundary he disregards. The verse brings that collision into the present whenever what pleases the eye begins to sound like a complete reason.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever feels right to me is therefore right.
THE ROOT
כִּי־הִיא יָשְׁרָה בְּעֵינָי
ki hi yashrah
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or upright; hence, right.
““Pleaseth me well”” in this verse is ki hi yashrah. Yashrah (יָשְׁרָה, yashrah) means “straight” or “right,” and be’enay (בְּעֵינָי, be’enay) locates that judgment in Samson’s eyes. The phrase lets desire sound like a standard of rightness, a wording that returns in Judges 21:25.
ALSO GROWS
yōsher: Uprightness, straightness, integrity.
יֹשֶׁר
It names straightness as a quality, showing that this root can describe a standard of rightness, not just what looks appealing.
mishor: Level ground, plain; uprightness.
מִישׁוֹר
The word carries the root’s sense of being level or straight, while Samson applies that idea as a judgment made by his eyes.
THE PATTERN
Desire can make private sight feel like a trustworthy measure of what is right.
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.THE THREAD
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.The phrase “right in his own eyes” repeats the same ישר (yashar, “straight/right”) root found in Samson’s reason. It widens the moment from one person’s desire to a pattern in which each person’s sight becomes the measure of rightness.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us