What Does Judges 16:23 Mean in the King James?

Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

Judges 16:23 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The rulers call Samson a gift from their god, exposing how a captor turns possession into proof of divine favor.

THE MEANING

Whoever holds someone can claim that the grip proves divine backing. The rulers call Samson delivered into their hand and turn that claim into a public celebration. The hand is real; the source and meaning they assign to it are claims.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Having someone in your hand proves that your god has granted the outcome. The verse presents this as the rulers’ boast, not a settled verdict.

THE ROOT

נָתַן

natan

GROWS FROM

נתן

n-t-n

Give, set, place.

The verb rendered “delivered” is natan: to give, set, or place. The rulers describe Samson as placed into their hand; the same verb and hand-image recur when Samson credits the LORD with giving him deliverance, revealing two competing claims about who gave the victory.

ALSO GROWS

mattanah: gift

מַתָּנָה

This noun for a gift grows from the same root of giving; the rulers treat Samson’s capture as something their god has handed over to them.

nathun: given, set in place

נָתוּן

This form makes the root’s sense of placement visible: Samson is described as set into the rulers’ hand.

THE PATTERN

The hand that holds a defeated person becomes evidence in competing stories about who gave the victory.

This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

1 Samuel 17:46 · KJVDavid uses the same hand-and-delivery structure, crediting the LORD with giving victory rather than claiming it for himself.

Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

Deuteronomy 32:27 · KJVThe verse names the rival claim directly: the enemy may take the raised hand as proof of its own power and deny who acted.

And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.

Acts 12:22 · KJVThe crowd turns a ruler’s authority into a claim of godhood, showing how public acclaim can make power seem divine.

THE THREAD

And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?

Judges 15:18 · KJV

Samson uses the same verb for “given” and the same image of something placed into a hand, but credits the LORD with his deliverance. Here the Philistine rulers give that credit to Dagon; the repeated wording makes their claim about the source of victory impossible to miss.

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