What Does Judges 16:29 Mean in the King James?
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
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 names a pillar from the verb “to stand”: the house’s standing is concentrated in what Samson grips.
THE MEANING
The two central pillars carry the house, and Samson takes hold of one with each hand. Its sustaining points are also the points his grip reaches. Support and vulnerability meet in the same place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a structure standing means it is self-supporting: this house stands because particular pillars bear it.
THE ROOT
עַמּוּדִים
ʿammûdîm
GROWS FROM
ע־מ־ד
To stand, remain, or take one’s position.
“pillars” in this verse is ʿammûdîm. The English word “pillar” sounds like an object; עַמּוּד (ʿammûd, “pillar”) grows from עָמַד (ʿāmad, “to stand”). These supports are the house’s very standing, so when Samson reaches them, he reaches what keeps the house upright.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: To stand, remain, or take one’s position.
עָמַד
The pillar’s root names the standing the house depends on.
heʿĕmîd: To make something stand or establish it.
הֶעֱמִיד
The same root moves from standing to making something stand, showing support as what holds the house upright.
וַיִּסָּמֵךְ
wayyissāmēkh
GROWS FROM
ס־מ־ך
To lean on, rest upon, support, or sustain.
“borne up / leaned upon” in this verse is wayyissāmēkh. The root סָמַךְ (sāmak, “lean on; support”) holds leaning and support together. In this scene, the house’s support and Samson’s contact with the pillars belong to the same physical relation: weight rests on what bears it.
ALSO GROWS
sāmak: To lean on something or support it.
סָמַךְ
It links the house’s dependence on the pillars with Samson’s physical contact with them.
nismakh: To be supported or to lean upon something.
נִסְמַךְ
This form makes the relation visible from the side of what rests on a support.
THE PATTERN
A structure’s stability depends on particular supports, and those supports are where its fate can turn.
The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.THE THREAD
And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.The earlier verse names these same pillars and uses סָמַךְ (sāmak, “lean on; support”) for Samson’s intended contact with them. Here that contact becomes a two-handed grasp: the passage moves from seeking the supports by touch to holding them.
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