What Does Judges 2:19 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
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
Their old practices return because they were never allowed to fall away.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of a pattern: when a restraining presence is gone, an old allegiance can return and grow stronger than before. The practices have not fallen away; they remain as a stubborn path.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a changed season has ended an old pattern is undone: what remains in place can return with greater force.
THE ROOT
הִפִּילוּ
hipilu
GROWS FROM
נפל
to fall; in this form, to cause to fall or drop
The Hebrew pictures them as not letting their practices fall away, where the KJV says “ceased not.” The image makes recurrence look like retention: the old path returns because it was never dropped.
ALSO GROWS
naphal: to fall
נָפַל
The basic image behind the verse’s picture of practices falling away.
hipil: to cause to fall; to drop
הִפִּיל
This form gives the verse its image of dropping or abandoning what they practiced.
mappalah: a downfall
מַפָּלָה
It shows another branch of the same root’s language of falling.
הַקָּשָׁה
haqqashah
GROWS FROM
קשה
to be hard or difficult
“stubborn” in this verse is haqqashah. The way is called hard in the same word family that names stubbornness and difficulty. English can make stubbornness sound like a personal trait; the Hebrew keeps the hardness in the path itself, a course difficult to turn from.
ALSO GROWS
qasheh: hard; difficult
קָשֶׁה
It names the quality of the way they keep following.
qeshi: hardness; stubbornness
קְשִׁי
It links the stubborn course to the same root’s sense of hardness.
שָׁבוּ
shavu
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
to return; to turn back
“returned” in this verse is shavu. The people do not merely resume behavior; they turn back. The same root can describe a return in either direction, making the question of what one turns toward central.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: to return; to turn back
שׁוּב
It is the root of the verse’s description of their return to other gods.
teshuvah: return; turning
תְּשׁוּבָה
It carries the same root idea of turning back.
heshiv: to bring back; to restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative branch shows the root can describe something being brought back.
THE PATTERN
A pause in pressure can leave an old course intact, ready to return when restraint lifts.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.THE THREAD
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.“Return” in both verses comes from שׁוב (shuv), meaning to return or turn back. Judges shows the turn toward other gods; Hosea uses the same root for turning toward the LORD, revealing that the decisive question is the direction of the return.
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