What Does Judges 15:6 Mean in the King James?
Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
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
Retaliation makes the people it can reach pay for the person it names.
THE MEANING
A conflict blamed on Samson ends with his wife and her father burned with fire. The stated cause is his taking and transfer of her, but the violence lands on them. The verse exposes how retaliation reaches beyond the person named as responsible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that revenge reaches only the person blamed: here the fire falls on the man’s wife and her father.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׂרְפוּ
wayyisrephu
GROWS FROM
שרף
ś-r-p
Burn, consume by fire.
“burnt” in this verse is wayyisrephu. The verb names literal burning: the violence is enacted against the woman and her father. Its word-family includes שְׂרֵפָה (śĕrēphāh, “burning”) and שָׂרָף (śārāph, “fiery serpent”), keeping the destructive heat audible in the root.
ALSO GROWS
śĕrēphāh: Burning, conflagration.
שְׂרֵפָה
The noun makes explicit that the verb’s action is burning.
śārāph: Fiery serpent; seraph.
שָׂרָף
This fiery being shares the burn-root, making the root’s destructive heat concrete.
וַיִּתְּנָהּ
wayyittenah
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place.
The form means “he gave her,” from natan: give, set, place. The root links transfer with placement, and the verse’s wording presents her as passed from Samson to his companion before the Philistines burn her and her father. “Given” preserves the transfer while the root makes its starkness harder to miss.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: Give, set, place.
נָתַן
This verb is the source of the form translated “given” and carries the sense of placing as well as giving.
mattānāh: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root preserves the idea of something transferred.
THE PATTERN
When power answers a perceived threat, its violence can spill onto people beyond the person it names.
And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.THE THREAD
And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.The same root, שָׂרַף (śāraph, “burn”), appears in Judah’s order to burn Tamar after she is accused. The echo shows a woman made the site of male judgment or reprisal; here, the fire is carried out.
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