What Does Judges 4:9 Mean in the King James?
And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.
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 journey is Barak’s, but its honor is rerouted through a woman’s hand.
THE MEANING
Barak takes the road, yet his honor is withheld; the decisive outcome passes into a woman’s hand. The verse keeps action, result, and recognition distinct: setting out does not guarantee ownership of the victory’s splendor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that taking the lead entitles a person to the victory’s honor: Barak’s journey proceeds while the LORD places Sisera in a woman’s hand.
THE ROOT
תִּפְאַרְתְּךָ
tif'artekha
GROWS FROM
פ־א־ר
To adorn, beautify, or glorify; the related noun carries the sense of splendor or beauty.
The word for Barak’s honour carries the sense of visible splendor, not merely status. Deborah’s warning is about where the victory’s radiance will settle: Barak may travel, but the text says the distinction will not be his.
ALSO GROWS
pa'ar: To adorn or glorify.
פָּאַר
The root verb presents honor as splendor made visible, clarifying what Barak is told he will not receive.
pe'er: An ornament or headdress.
פְּאֵר
This related word makes the image concrete: the honor withheld from Barak is like an adornment or crown that will belong elsewhere.
יִמְכֹּר
yimkor
GROWS FROM
מ־כ־ר
To sell; to transfer something into another’s possession through a sale.
“sell” in this verse is yimkor. The LORD is the subject of the selling, and Sisera is the one transferred. The phrase בְּיַד־אִשָּׁה (beyad-ishah, “into the hand of a woman”) names where that transfer lands: control over Sisera passes to a woman, outside Barak’s honor.
ALSO GROWS
makhar: To sell.
מָכַר
This is the root verb behind the prediction, framing Sisera’s defeat as a transfer of possession.
nimkar: To be sold or transferred.
נִמְכַּר
This related form places the one sold on the receiving end of the transfer, illuminating how the verse removes control from Sisera and assigns it elsewhere.
THE PATTERN
Preservation, victory, and witness can turn on women’s actions beyond the command of expected authorities.
But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.THE THREAD
Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.The hand Deborah names becomes literal: Jael takes the hammer in her hand and kills Sisera. The verse’s prediction is fulfilled through the woman’s action, while the honor of the journey does not belong to Barak.
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