What Does Judges 6:1 Mean in the King James?

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Judges 6:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The hand that holds Israel is Midian’s; the hand that places them there is the LORD’s.

THE MEANING

This verse meets you with an unsettling pairing: Israel does evil in the LORD’s sight, and the LORD gives them into Midian’s hand for seven years. The oppression is real, and the LORD is named as the one who places Israel there. The seven years give the confinement a stated span.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that divine presence always means immediate protection: here, the LORD is present as the giver of Israel’s handover.

THE ROOT

וַיִּתְּנֵם

wayyittenem

GROWS FROM

נתן

n-t-n

to give, set, or place

The verb behind “delivered” comes from ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, “give, set, place”), so the verse carries the force of transfer: the LORD gives Israel into Midian’s hand. The same root forms ⁨מַתָּנָה⁩ (mattanah, “gift, present”), showing that the family names the act of giving while its object and context determine its weight.

ALSO GROWS

natun: given, placed

נָתוּן

This form makes the root’s sense of placement visible in the handover described here.

mattanah: gift, present

מַתָּנָה

This noun shares the giving-root and shows how the root’s meaning takes its force from what is given and where it is placed.

THE PATTERN

Scripture can describe judgment for a people’s wrongdoing as God giving them over to another power.

And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

Judges 2:14 · KJVThe LORD again gives Israel into hostile hands, and their subjection becomes the stated form of judgment.

And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.

Psalm 106:41 · KJVIsrael is described as given into hostile hands, where another power rules over them.

Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

Acts 7:42 · KJVThe same pattern of divine handover appears as God gives people over to the worship they have turned toward.

THE THREAD

And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land;

Judges 6:9 · KJV

Judges 6:1 uses ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, “give, set, place”) for Israel being given into Midian’s hand; in this verse, the same root describes God giving Israel the land after bringing them out of oppression. The repeated verb marks a change in placement: from under Midian’s hand to possession of the land.

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