What Does Judges 14:5 Mean in the King James?
Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
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 lion’s roar is already coming to meet Samson, placing danger in motion before the verse shows what the encounter becomes.
THE MEANING
You meet the instant danger announces its approach: the journey is underway, and the roar comes toward you. The verse stays with the moment before the outcome, letting the threat remain audible and unresolved.
THE ROOT
לִקְרָאתוֹ
liqraʾto
GROWS FROM
קרא
Call or summon; in the phrase לִקְרָאתוֹ (liqraʾto), come toward him or meet him.
Beneath “against him” is a directional phrase: “toward him” or “to meet him.” The root’s language of calling and encounter makes the danger more than hostility in the abstract: the roar is coming into Samson’s path.
ALSO GROWS
qara: Call, summon, or proclaim.
קָרָא
The root’s sense of calling gives the encounter direction: something is coming toward Samson.
miqra: Assembly or convocation.
מִקְרָא
This branch carries the sense of people called together, showing how the root can name an encounter or gathering.
שֹׁאֵג
shoʾeg
GROWS FROM
שאג
To roar or bellow.
“roared” in this verse is shoʾeg. The lion’s roar is an action in its own right, making the threat audible before any attack is described. The same root can name both the roaring and the roar itself.
ALSO GROWS
shaʾag: To roar.
שָׁאַג
This verb names the lion’s sound as an active declaration of its presence.
sheʾagat: Roaring of, as in “the roaring of” a lion.
שְׁאַגַת
This noun form makes the sound a recognizable event, not merely a quality of the lion.
THE PATTERN
A roar makes danger audible before its attack is described.
Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.THE THREAD
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.Exodus uses the same קרא (qara, call) construction when Aaron comes out “to meet thee.” The shared root names movement into an encounter; there it brings gladness, while in Judges the approaching roar makes the encounter dangerous.
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