What Does Judges 6:6 Mean in the King James?
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.
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 word for “impoverished” pictures Israel brought low, and from that low place the people give their distress a voice in a cry to the LORD.
THE MEANING
Midian’s pressure brings Israel very low, and the people cry to the LORD. Their material depletion and their appeal stand together: oppression has diminished them, but their cry is still directed toward God.
THE ROOT
וַיִּדַּל
wayyiddal
GROWS FROM
דלל
dalal
To hang low, become weak, or be brought low.
The word translated “impoverished” carries the image of Israel brought low, not merely lacking possessions. The root connects material deprivation with a lowered condition, giving the people’s cry a voice from the depths of that pressure.
ALSO GROWS
dal: Poor, low, or weak.
דַל
This related word makes the lowered condition in “impoverished” more visible.
dallut: Poverty or a low condition.
דַּלּוּת
It names the state that the verb describes: Israel is brought into a condition of deprivation.
וַיִּזְעֲקוּ
wayyiz'aqu
GROWS FROM
זעק
za'aq
To cry out in distress or call for help.
“cried” in this verse is wayyiz'aqu. This is an outcry rising from distress, not simply a mention of emotion. Exodus uses the same root for Israel’s cry under bondage, where the cry comes up before God; here the same word turns their impoverishment into an appeal addressed to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
za'aq: To cry out or call for help.
זָעַק
The verb names the people’s act of voicing distress.
ze'aqah: An outcry or cry for help.
זְעָקָה
This related noun shows the cry as something that can be heard and answered.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, the cry of people pressed down by oppression is directed toward God and enters his hearing.
And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.Exodus 2:23 uses the same זעק (za’aq, “cry out”) root for Israel’s outcry under bondage. Judges repeats that root as Israel is brought low under Midian, linking the two cries as appeals rising from oppression.
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