What Does Judges 19:27 Mean in the King James?
And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold.
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
Hebrew uses the same root for opened and doorway: he passes through the opening to resume his way, while she remains fallen at its threshold.
THE MEANING
The assault’s aftermath remains in the morning: the woman is fallen at the house entrance, her hands on the threshold. Her lord opens the doors and goes toward his own way, keeping his movement beside her stillness in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Daylight does not mean the harm is behind you; its aftermath still lies at the doorway.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְתַּח
vayyiftach
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
Open; make an opening.
“opened” in this verse is vayyiftach. English gives you an action and a place: he opens the doors, then finds her at the door of the house. Hebrew repeats פתח (p-t-ḥ): the opening he passes through is also the opening where she lies, making their opposite movements part of the same word-family.
ALSO GROWS
patach: To open.
פָּתַח
This is the verb used for the doors he opens, initiating his passage out.
petach: Opening, entrance, doorway.
פֶּתַח
This word names the house entrance where she lies, joining the place she is found to the action he performs.
לְדַרְכּוֹ
ledarko
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
Tread, step; a way is a trodden path.
His way is דֶּרֶךְ (derek), a path shaped by treading. The verse names where he is headed as his own route while her hands stay on the threshold, sharpening the separation between his continued movement and her immobility.
ALSO GROWS
derek: Way, path, road.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the word for the route he goes out to follow, marked as his own.
darak: To tread, step.
דָּרַךְ
This verb reveals the motion inside the word for way: he steps onward while she remains at the threshold.
THE PATTERN
At a doorway, the text makes danger or encounter visible at the boundary between inside and outside.
And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.THE THREAD
And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.Both verses use פֶּתַח (petach, opening or doorway) for the house’s entrance. Genesis places a violent crowd at that opening; Judges places the assaulted woman there, her hands on the threshold, making the doorway the boundary where the violence becomes visible.
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