What Does Judges 14:8 Mean in the King James?
And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.
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 word for the lion’s carcass is formed from “fall,” so the honey is found inside what has fallen.
THE MEANING
The scene holds death and sweetness in the same place: the lion’s fallen body contains bees and honey. The carcass remains a carcass, yet it is also where the sweetness is found. The verse lets you see that what appears to be only an end can hold something nourishing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what has fallen can hold nothing but decay: here, bees and honey are inside the lion’s carcass.
THE ROOT
מַפֶּלֶת
mappéleth
GROWS FROM
נפל
naphal
to fall
The word מַפֶּלֶת (mappéleth, a fall or fallen thing) comes from נָפַל (naphal, to fall). English “carcase” names the remains; the Hebrew also carries the image of a fall, so the sweetness is found within what has fallen.
ALSO GROWS
naphal: to fall
נָפַל
This verb is the root seed behind the word translated “carcase,” bringing the sense of falling into the image of the dead lion.
mappālāh: a downfall or ruin
מַפָּלָה
This related noun carries the root’s sense of a fall into a state of ruin, echoing the lion’s fallen state.
THE PATTERN
Nourishment can appear in unlikely places, including spaces marked by barrenness or danger.
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened.And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.THE THREAD
And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.The riddle gives words to the image in this verse: the eater becomes a source of food, and the strong one a source of sweetness. It reveals the lion and honey as one deliberate paradox.
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