What Does Judges 19:4 Mean in the King James?
And his father in law, the damsel’s father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they did eat and drink, and lodged there.
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 word for “retained” also means “hold fast,” so this welcome already carries the force of keeping someone there.
THE MEANING
Welcome can hold a person in place: the father-in-law keeps him under his roof through three days of eating, drinking, and lodging. The Hebrew verb behind “retained” carries the sense of holding fast, pressing, or strengthening, so the hospitality has insistence as well as warmth. The verse leaves care and pressure close together.
THE ROOT
וַיַּחֲזֶק־בּוֹ
wayyaḥăzeq-bô
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥ-z-q
Be strong; hold fast; strengthen or urge firmly.
Behind “retained” is חזק (ḥazaq, “hold fast; strengthen”): the stay is held open, not merely allowed to happen. The same root can press a traveler toward a meal or describe someone strengthening himself, so Hebrew keeps firmness and hospitality in one word-family while leaving the feeling of the hold to the scene.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong; grow firm.
חָזַק
The root joins strength with holding fast, giving “retained” a sense of active insistence.
vattachazeq: She urged or constrained.
וַתַּחֲזֶק
In 2 Kings 4:8 the same root describes a woman pressing Elisha to eat, bringing hospitality and insistence together.
wayyitchazzeq: He strengthened himself.
וַיִּתְחַזֵּק
In 1 Samuel 30:6 the same root describes David finding strength, showing that its force can steady someone as well as hold someone in place.
THE PATTERN
The same force of firmness can press someone to remain or make someone steady under strain.
And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.THE THREAD
And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.The verbs translated “retained” here and “constrained” there both come from חזק (ḥazaq, “hold fast; strengthen”). The shared root shows how keeping a guest through food can carry insistence inside the welcome; here, that insistence lasts three days.
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