What Does Judges 4:24 Mean in the King James?
And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
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 makes victory a hand that keeps moving and hardening until its opponent is cut off.
THE MEANING
When a force bears down on you, this verse names a counterforce that keeps advancing and grows stronger against it. The ending is stark: Jabin is destroyed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A stronger opposing power has not already decided the outcome; the verse describes its eventual end.
THE ROOT
וְקָשָׁה
weqāšâ
GROWS FROM
קשה
To be hard, severe, or difficult.
Where English says “prevailed,” the Hebrew uses the language of becoming hard or strong. The hand grows into a force that presses against Jabin; victory here has weight and resistance in it.
ALSO GROWS
qāšeh: Hard, severe, difficult
קָשֶׁה
The same root describes the hardness that gives the hand its force against Jabin.
hiqšâ: Made hard, hardened
הִקְשָׁה
This causative form shows the root can describe hardening, echoing the increasing force in the verse.
וַתֵּלֶךְ
vattēlekh
GROWS FROM
הלך
To go or walk.
The Hebrew says the hand “went,” then repeats the idea with “going”, a movement the KJV compresses into “prospered.” The strength is not presented as a sudden arrival; it keeps advancing.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To go, walk, or proceed
הָלַךְ
This basic verb brings motion into what English renders as success.
holekh: Going or walking
הוֹלֵךְ
This form keeps the action in progress, like the hand that continues forward against Jabin.
הִכְרִיתוּ
hikhritu
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut off or sever.
The verse’s endpoint is literally being cut off: the English “destroyed” carries the image of severance beneath it. The continuing pressure ends in a decisive break.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut off or sever
כָּרַת
This is the root action beneath the verse’s “destroyed.”
nikhrat: To be cut off
נִכְרַת
This form makes the severance explicit: the thing opposed is brought to an end.
THE PATTERN
Sustained pressure changes the balance against what resists it.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.THE THREAD
And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.“Destroyed” in Judges and “cut off” in Genesis draw on the same root, כרת (karat), meaning to cut off or sever. One verse names a king being cut off; the other promises that all flesh will not be cut off again by the flood.
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