What Does Judges 20:47 Mean in the King James?
But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
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 root behind “fled” also forms “refuge”: their flight is already a movement toward shelter.
THE MEANING
Here, survival means fleeing the violence and finding cover in the wilderness. The six hundred remain in the rock for four months; their shelter is real, while what comes next remains unresolved.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that fleeing means having no refuge loosens here: their flight leads to a place where they can stay.
THE ROOT
וַיָּנֻסוּ
wayyānusū
GROWS FROM
נוס
nûs
to flee, escape, or take flight
“fled” in this verse is wayyānusū. English separates escape from shelter, but this Hebrew word family also gives a word for refuge. Their flight is more than movement away from danger: its root carries the possibility of reaching a place of escape.
ALSO GROWS
mānôs: refuge; a place of escape
מָנוֹס
This noun shares the root of “fled,” joining flight to the shelter it seeks.
hēnîs: to drive away or put to flight
הֵנִיס
This causative form shows the same root can name what sends someone fleeing, while this verse focuses on the escape itself.
THE PATTERN
When danger makes staying exposed, survival takes the form of reaching shelter and remaining there until the threat passes.
David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:THE THREAD
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.The six hundred take shelter in a literal סֶלַע (sela, rock), and the Psalm uses the same Hebrew word for the LORD as rock and fortress. The shared word holds physical cover and the language of protection together, while leaving the men’s danger unresolved.
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