What Does Judges 18:27 Mean in the King James?
And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city 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
The Hebrew behind “secure” also carries trust and confidence: the verse places that security beside the violence without making it the cause.
THE MEANING
The verse places seizure, killing, and burning together: Micah’s things and priest are taken, a quiet and secure people are struck down, and the city is burned. It names how security and violence occupy the same scene, without making the people’s quietness a cause of what happens.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that quietness or security guarantees safety breaks here: the people are described as secure, and still they are attacked.
THE ROOT
בֹּטֵחַ
boteach
GROWS FROM
בטח
batach
To trust, rely upon, or feel secure.
The word translated “secure” carries both a state of safety and the sense of trust or confidence. The verse places that confidence beside the attackers’ violence, without suggesting it caused the attack.
ALSO GROWS
batach: To trust, rely on, or feel secure.
בָּטַח
The verb shows that security and trust belong to the same Hebrew word-family.
mivtakh: Trust, confidence, or refuge.
מִבְטָח
Psalm 40:4 uses this noun for the LORD as a person’s trust, showing how the root can name where confidence rests.
THE PATTERN
A people can be at ease and secure when violence arrives; security names a condition, not immunity.
And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.THE THREAD
Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.The word translated “secure” is בֹּטֵחַ (boteach, trusting or secure), from בטח (batach, to trust or feel secure). Psalm 40:4 uses the same root in “trust,” joining Laish’s security and the psalmist’s trust in one Hebrew word-family, though this verse does not say what the people trusted.
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