What Does Judges 3:29 Mean in the King James?
And they slew of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valour; and there escaped not a man.
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 “escaped” can also mean “rescue,” sharpening the verse’s claim: no one is brought out of the slaughter.
THE MEANING
The scene holds the Moabite men as stout and capable even as it names about ten thousand killed and says no man escapes. Their strength remains visible in the telling; the violence is total.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that physical strength or valor guarantees survival: it names both qualities, then says no one escapes.
THE ROOT
נִמְלַט
nimlaṭ
GROWS FROM
מלט
Slip away or escape; in the Piel stem, deliver or rescue.
“escaped” in this verse is nimlaṭ. The root holds both getting away and bringing someone to safety. Here, that range sharpens the finality: no one slips free of the violence.
ALSO GROWS
nimlaṭ: Escaped; slipped away.
נִמְלַט
This is the form in the verse, where no one gets away.
milleṭ: Rescued; delivered.
מִלֵּט
The same root can describe bringing someone out of danger, making its use here especially stark.
חָיִל
ḥayil
GROWS FROM
חיל
Strength, force, capacity, or resources; by extension, a host or army.
English “valour” draws attention to courage, while חַיִל also carries the sense of force, resources, and military capacity. The verse describes men with strength and capability before declaring that none escapes.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayil: Strength, capacity, resources, or valor.
חַיִל
This is the word used for the men’s valor, with a range wider than courage alone.
ḥeil: Host or army; military force.
חֵיל
This related form keeps the collective force behind the description in view.
שָׁמֵן
shāmen
GROWS FROM
שמן
Be fat, grow stout, or become rich.
Here שָׁמֵן describes stout or fat-bodied men; “lusty” carries an older sense of vigor, not sexual desire. The same root yields שֶׁמֶן (“oil”) and מַשְׁמַנִּים (“rich or fat foods”), keeping bodily abundance inside the description.
ALSO GROWS
shemen: Oil.
שֶׁמֶן
The related word carries the root’s sense of richness and substance.
mashmannim: Rich or fat foods.
מַשְׁמַנִּים
This branch makes the bodily sense behind “lusty” concrete.
THE PATTERN
Battle accounts can make total destruction explicit by closing every avenue of survival.
And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword; and there was not a man left.And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.THE THREAD
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.Judges uses נִמְלַט (nimlaṭ, “escape”), from מלט, the same root used here in “delivered.” In Judges, no one slips free of the killing; in the psalm, the root names people brought out of destruction.
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