What Does Judges 3:14 Mean in the King James?
So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
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
Oppression’s measure here is time: eighteen years of Israel’s life are spent in service to Eglon.
THE MEANING
A constricting rule claims time through service, and prolonged service can begin to feel like the shape of life. This verse keeps the cost visible: Israel’s service to Eglon lasts eighteen years.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַבְדוּ
wayyaʿavdu
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve; to be in service.
“served” in this verse is wayyaʿavdu. The verb shares its root with words for both a servant and labor or service, joining the person placed under rule to the work that service entails. The eighteen years therefore name an ongoing claim on Israel’s time, not just a moment of defeat.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant; slave.
עֶבֶד
The same root names the person whose status is defined by service, making the subjection in the verb concrete.
ʿavodah: Work; labor; service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch shows the labor carried inside the idea of serving: the ruler’s claim occupies the people’s working life.
עֶגְלוֹן
ʿEglōn
GROWS FROM
עגל
ʿ-g-l
Calf; young bovine, in the related word עֵגֶל (ʿēgel).
Eglon is commonly connected with עֵגֶל, “calf,” though the precise derivation of the name is uncertain. That animal image gives the ruler’s name a vivid resonance in a verse about Israel serving him; the verse itself makes no further claim about the image.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēgel: Calf.
עֵגֶל
This related word is the likely source of the name’s animal resonance.
ʿeglāh: Heifer; young cow.
עֶגְלָה
This related form keeps the name within the same cattle imagery.
THE PATTERN
Oppression becomes a way of life when service to another power takes up a people’s time and labor.
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?THE THREAD
Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.Judges uses עבד (ʿ-b-d), “to serve,” for Israel’s service to Eglon; Deuteronomy uses the same root for serving enemies. The shared word names more than a loss of power: it describes a life made to labor under another’s rule.
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