What Does Judges 2:5 Mean in the King James?
And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.
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 place of sacrifice is named for weepers: grief remains visible in the very place where an offering is made.
THE MEANING
This verse holds grief and offering in one scene: the place carries the name “Weepers,” and sacrifice happens there too. Sorrow is still visible; it does not have to disappear before the place can be called a place of offering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that grief must be finished or hidden before a person can approach God.
THE ROOT
בֹּכִים
bōkhîm
GROWS FROM
בכה
to weep
“Bochim” in this verse is bōkhîm. English leaves the place-name looking like a label, but Hebrew makes it a living plural: “weepers.” The people’s grief is carried in the place’s name, still present when sacrifice is offered there.
ALSO GROWS
bākāh: to weep
בָּכָה
The verb names the action from which Bochim takes its meaning.
bekhî: weeping
בְּכִי
This noun keeps the same root visible as an experience, linking the act of crying to the place named for those who cry.
THE PATTERN
Grief can be named openly within a life that still turns toward God.
But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.Jesus wept.THE THREAD
But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.The same root בכה (bākāh, “to weep”) is heard in בֹּכִים (bōkhîm, “weepers”) and אַלּוֹן בָּכוּת (ʾallôn bākhûth, “oak of weeping”). Judges makes weeping the name of a place beside sacrifice; Genesis carries the same root into the name of an oak.
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