What Does Judges 2:3 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto 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
What stays in your midst can wound at the edges and capture at the center.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now with a severe image: what remains in your midst presses like thorns at your sides, while their gods become a snare to you. The danger is both the pain of what stays near and the capture of what claims allegiance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever remains in the background is harmless: proximity can press like a thorn, and allegiance can become a snare.
THE ROOT
מוֹקֵשׁ
mōqēsh
GROWS FROM
יקשׁ
y-q-sh
To ensnare or set a trap.
“snare” in this verse is mōqēsh. The root names a mechanism of capture: the danger is not only a painful presence but a pull that catches you in what it serves. The same root moves between the act of ensnaring and the trap itself, placing the threat in entanglement.
ALSO GROWS
yāqash: To set a snare; to ensnare.
יָקַשׁ
The verb reveals the action beneath the noun: a snare catches.
mōqēsh: Snare, trap.
מוֹקֵשׁ
This is the noun used for the gods’ effect: their pull catches the person who comes under their service.
אֲגָרֵשׁ
’agārēsh
GROWS FROM
גרשׁ
g-r-sh
To drive out, expel, or send away.
“drive them out” in this verse is ’agārēsh. This root’s family includes a word for a divorced woman, one sent away; expelling and putting away share its language. Here, what is not sent away stays in your space as thorned pressure alongside the snare.
ALSO GROWS
vaygarēsh: And he drove out or expelled.
וַיְגָרֶשׁ
This verbal form shows the root as an act of forcing something out of an occupied space.
gerushah: A divorced woman; one sent away.
גְּרוּשָׁה
The related form gives expulsion a relational shade: the root also speaks of being put away.
THE PATTERN
What captures a person is often an allegiance or desire that draws them into the trap.
They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.THE THREAD
They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.Both verses use מוֹקֵשׁ (mōqēsh, snare), the same Hebrew noun. Exodus names service to other gods as the mechanism of capture, and Judges shows the snare within reach through what remains in your midst.
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