What Does Judges 7:9 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.
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 outcome is named as given before Gideon descends to meet it.
THE MEANING
The LORD tells Gideon to descend while naming the host as already given into his hand. The verse speaks now to the space between hearing what is promised and seeing what lies ahead: the giving is declared before the encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that certainty can come only after visible proof; here, the promise is spoken before the descent.
THE ROOT
נְתַתִּיו
netattiv
GROWS FROM
נתן
give, set, place
The word translated “delivered” is a form of נָתַן (natan), “to give.” The root lets the phrase carry the concrete sense of the host being given, placed into Gideon’s hand before he sees the outcome.
ALSO GROWS
mattan: gift, present
מַתָּן
The same root’s act of giving can be named as a gift received.
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This related form keeps the root’s movement from giving into what is given.
THE PATTERN
What is given can be named before its recipient has taken possession of it.
Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?THE THREAD
And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.The same root נתן (natan, “give”) appears in the words translated “hath God delivered.” The giving announced in verse 9 returns here in the same hand-language, voiced from the other side of the conflict.
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