What Does Judges 16:16 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;
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 says that repeated words press a person until his living self grows short, making this more than irritation: the pressure reaches toward death.
THE MEANING
Repeated words can press a person until the living self feels shortened toward death. This verse names verbal pressure at its most severe: it reaches past hurt feelings into the will to live.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that words cannot do real harm because they leave no visible wound: sustained verbal pressure can reach the will to live.
THE ROOT
וַתִּקְצַר
vattiqtsar
GROWS FROM
קצר
qatsar
to be short, become short, or cut short
Where KJV says “vexed,” וַתִּקְצַר (vattiqtsar, became short) says that נַפְשׁוֹ (nafsho, his living soul) grows short. The same root’s shortness and cutting branches make the pressure feel measurable: his living self is narrowing toward death.
ALSO GROWS
qotser: shortness
קֹצֶר
In Exodus 6:9, it describes shortness of רוּחַ (ruach, breath), echoing the shortened living self in this verse.
qatsir: harvest; crop gathered by cutting
קָצִיר
This related harvest word keeps the root’s cutting sense visible beside an English rendering that can sound like mere agitation.
דְּבָרֶיהָ
devaréha
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
speech; a word, matter, or thing
The Hebrew word for “words” belongs to a family where a word can also be a matter or thing. Here, speech is not incidental: the verse links the repeated words directly to the shortening of his living self.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word; matter or thing
דָּבָר
Its range makes the words feel like the concrete pressure bearing on him, not merely passing sound.
dibber: to speak or declare
דִּבֵּר
The speaking branch brings the repeated act into view: the pressure comes through words delivered day after day.
THE PATTERN
Sustained pressure can shorten or exhaust the living self, and scripture names that cost plainly.
And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.THE THREAD
And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.The root קצר (qatsar, to be short or cut short) appears as קֹצֶר (qotser, shortness), paired with רוּחַ (ruach, breath), in Exodus 6:9. Judges applies that shortening image to נַפְשׁוֹ (nafsho, his living soul), so both verses make pressure felt as the narrowing of life and breath.
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