What Does Judges 21:2 Mean in the King James?
And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;
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
At Bethel, the house of God, the Hebrew repeats בכה, “they wept” with “weeping,” making their grief the sound they raise before God.
THE MEANING
The people stay before God until evening, and their shared grief comes into the open as raised voices and tears. The verse speaks now wherever sorrow is shared: God’s presence and unhidden grief occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that grief in God’s presence must already be resolved is undone here: the people come before God and still weep aloud.
THE ROOT
וַיִּבְכּוּ בְּכִי
wayyivku bekhi
GROWS FROM
בכה
bakah: to weep, lament
“wept sore” in this verse is wayyivku bekhi. The verb wayyivku, “they wept,” is followed by the same root as a noun, bekhi, “weeping”: the Hebrew says they “wept a great weeping.” “Sore” preserves the intensity, while the repeated root makes the communal lament audible in the language itself.
ALSO GROWS
bekhi: weeping, lamentation
בְּכִי
This noun follows the verb in the verse, echoing its root and showing how the Hebrew intensifies the act of weeping.
Bochim: weepers
בֹּכִים
In Judges 2:5, this root names a place by the people who weep there, so lament becomes part of the place’s name.
לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים
lifnei ha’Elohim
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah: to turn or face toward
The Hebrew phrase rendered “before God” is built from panim, “face” or “presence.” Their grief takes place face-to-face with God, not at a distance from that presence.
ALSO GROWS
panim: face, front, presence
פָּנִים
This is the face-word behind lifnei, “before,” giving the scene a sense of direct presence.
panah: to turn, face toward
פָּנָה
The root’s sense of facing toward makes their lament a direct encounter before God.
THE PATTERN
In God’s presence, grief can become a shared voice and a sustained lament.
(And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;THE THREAD
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.The Hebrew verb translated “wept sore” in both verses comes from בכה (bakah), the same root repeated here as a verb and noun. Hannah’s tears accompany prayer, echoing the lament raised before God in Judges.
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