What Does Judges 2:1 Mean in the King James?
And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
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 messenger names deliverance out of Egypt as a completed crossing into the land, then speaks an unbroken covenant at Bochim, the place of weeping.
THE MEANING
The verse holds together being carried out of constriction, brought into a place to belong, and held by a promise that endures. Even in the place of weeping, the messenger speaks the covenant as unbroken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Weeping is not proof that the covenant has ended; the promise of endurance is spoken right there, in the place named for grief.
THE ROOT
אָפֵר
ʾaphēr
GROWS FROM
פָּרַר
To break apart, annul, violate, or make void.
“break” in this verse is ʾaphēr. The verb carries the sense of annulling or violating a bond. The verse uses that force to say that God will not perform that act against the covenant sworn with you.
ALSO GROWS
hēfēr: Annulled or violated
הֵפֵר
This related form names the setting aside of a bond, sharpening what the promise refuses.
hafarah: Annulment or breach
הֲפָרָה
The noun makes clear that the root can describe a bond being rendered void; here the covenant is declared enduring.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitsrayim
GROWS FROM
צָרַר
To bind, press in, or constrict.
The name carries the image of tzar, narrowness, with the dual ending -ayim: the two narrows. So being brought out of Egypt is also an image of emergence from constriction, followed here by arrival in the land and an enduring bond.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, constricting
צַר
This is the narrowness carried inside the name for Egypt.
tsarah: Distress or trouble
צָרָה
The same root links constriction with the distress it produces, illuminating the movement out of Egypt.
הַבֹּכִים
ha-Bokhim
GROWS FROM
בָּכָה
To weep.
Bochim means “the weepers,” so the destination itself carries the sound of grief. The messenger speaks the promise of an enduring covenant in that very place.
ALSO GROWS
bokhim: Weepers
בֹּכִים
This form names those who weep and gives the place its meaning.
bekhi: Weeping
בְּכִי
The related noun shows that the place-name grows from the act of weeping present in the scene.
THE PATTERN
The movement out of constriction rests on a covenant that endures beyond the moment of deliverance.
I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.THE THREAD
And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.“To break my covenant” uses the same Hebrew root פָּרַר (parar, to annul or violate) as Judges 2:1’s “I will not break.” Here the promise is spoken even in the land of enemies, opening the word at Bochim into a covenant that remains through distress.
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