What Does Judges 19:22 Mean in the King James?
Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.
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
Here, “know him” is relational language turned into a weapon: the mob is demanding sexual access by force.
THE MEANING
The verse exposes a crowd turning a house into a siege and a person into a target. Its demand to “know” the guest is a demand for sexual access; the language of intimacy does not soften its coercion. The threat is bodily and violent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that a demand for access becomes intimacy when called “knowing”; the mob’s words describe coercion.
THE ROOT
וְנֵדָעֶנּוּ
veneda'ennu
GROWS FROM
ידע
yada
To know, recognize, or become acquainted with through encounter
“know” in this verse is veneda'ennu. This verb’s family links knowing with recognition and acquaintance. Here the encounter is imposed, turning language associated with knowing a person into a threat of sexual violence.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun shares the root of “know,” showing how the word family holds knowing and knowledge together; here, the mob makes that knowing coercive.
moda: Acquaintance, kinsman
מֹדָע
This branch can name someone known through relationship, sharpening the contrast with the mob’s forced access to the guest.
THE PATTERN
When sexual access is taken by force, intimate language cannot erase the violence.
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her.THE THREAD
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.Genesis uses the same root for a crowd’s demand to “know” its visitors. The parallel makes clear that the word here carries a threat of sexual violence, not mutual recognition.
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