What Does Judges 15:2 Mean in the King James?
And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
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 “instead” means “in her place,” turning the younger daughter into someone offered to occupy the older daughter’s position.
THE MEANING
The father explains that he gave one daughter to another man because he thought Samson hated her, then offers her younger sister in her place. Neither daughter speaks in the verse; the exchange is narrated through the choices of the men who claim authority over them.
THE ROOT
תַּחְתֶּיהָ
taḥteha
GROWS FROM
תחת
Under, beneath; by extension, in the place of.
“instead of her” in this verse is taḥteha. The Hebrew is spatial: the younger sister is proposed as occupying the older sister’s place. That connection sits inside “instead,” making the offer a reassignment, not simply a new offer of marriage.
ALSO GROWS
taḥat: under, beneath
תַּחַת
The basic spatial sense of the word family also carries the idea of being in someone’s place.
taḥtav: under him; in his place
תַּחְתָּיו
This form shows the same spatial word used for substitution, as in Genesis 4:25’s “instead of Abel.”
taḥteha: under her; in her place
תַּחְתֶּיהָ
This is the form used in the verse: the younger sister is offered to take the older sister’s place.
וָאֶתְּנֶנָּה
va'ettenennah
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“gave” in this verse is va'ettenennah. The father describes the transfer with a verb from the root נתן (natan), which means “give,” “set,” or “place.” The same root can name a gift, but here it describes the father’s act; the verse gives no voice to the daughter being given.
ALSO GROWS
natan: give, set, place
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind “I gave her,” making the father the grammatical actor in the transfer.
mattanah: gift, present
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the same root of giving; its presence in the word family makes the verse’s language of transfer especially visible.
אָמֹר אָמַרְתִּי
amor amarti
GROWS FROM
אמר
Say, speak.
The phrase rendered “I verily thought” repeats the root אמר (amar), “say”: literally, “saying, I said.” The emphatic wording puts the father’s own account at the center of his explanation, while the daughters remain unheard in this line.
ALSO GROWS
amar: say, speak
אָמַר
This is the root used in the father’s statement that he “thought.”
omer: one who says; saying
אֹמֵר
This form from the same root keeps the connection between thought and speech visible.
imrah: utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
This noun shares the root and shows how the verse’s “thought” belongs to a word family centered on speech.
THE PATTERN
A custom or personal explanation can be used to make a woman’s reassignment sound settled.
And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.But it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul’s daughter should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.THE THREAD
And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.The same Hebrew word תַּחַת (taḥat), “under” or “in place of,” appears in both verses. In Genesis it names a new child in Abel’s place; here it names a younger sister offered in her older sister’s place.
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