What Does Judges 20:7 Mean in the King James?
Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.
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
It links belonging to participation: the whole people are asked to bring a word about the matter and counsel for judgment.
THE MEANING
The reader is addressed as part of a people whose shared identity makes each voice part of the response. The verse joins a word about the matter to counsel that weighs it, so speech and judgment meet in the same gathering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that group judgment belongs only to leaders: the whole people are addressed as participants whose counsel is called for.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; word, matter, or thing
“advice” in this verse is davar. The term דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”) holds utterance and the matter spoken of together. Placed beside עֵצָה (etsah, “counsel”), it joins speech about what is before the people with deliberate judgment.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
This spoken form shows that the requested advice is an utterance offered in the gathering.
devarim: Words; matters
דְּבָרִים
The same word family holds speech and the matters being considered together.
עֵצָה
etsah
GROWS FROM
י־ע־ץ
y-ʿ-ts
To advise or give counsel
The noun עֵצָה (etsah, “counsel”) shares its root with יָעַץ (ya’ats, “to advise”) and יוֹעֵץ (yo’ets, “counselor”). The sentence frames counsel as an act the whole assembly can take part in, rather than a verdict reserved for one voice.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ats: To advise; give counsel
יָעַץ
The verb names the act carried by the counsel the people are asked to offer.
yo'ets: Counselor; adviser
יוֹעֵץ
This form names the person who gives counsel, while the verse widens that role to the whole assembly.
THE PATTERN
A community’s judgment takes shape when many voices bring words and counsel into shared discernment.
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.THE THREAD
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.The same Hebrew word עֵצָה (etsah, “counsel”) appears in both verses. Judges calls counsel into the shared space; Proverbs pictures it as deep water that understanding draws out, waiting within a person to be expressed.
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