What Does Judges 9:16 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands;
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 verse measures a crown by the wholeness of the hands that confer it and the return those hands make.
THE MEANING
The verse asks whether the choice being defended is true and whole, and whether Jerubbaal and his household are treated in keeping with what his hands have dealt. Abimelech (אֲבִימֶלֶךְ, ʾAvimelekh) means “my father is king,” while Jerubbaal (יְרֻבַּעַל, Yerubbaʿal) means “Let Baal contend”; their names sharpen the question of what the claim to kingship rests on. The line speaks now wherever a claim of justice has to face the dealings that produced it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that naming a choice legitimate makes it just; the verse tests the claim against the wholeness of the act and the return it gives.
THE ROOT
תָּמִים
tamim
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete or whole.
The word rendered “sincerely” carries the sense of wholeness: the choice and the treatment surrounding it belong to one undivided account. Integrity here reaches the whole act, not just the intention behind it.
ALSO GROWS
tam: Whole, blameless.
תָּם
It shows that integrity concerns the condition of the whole person or act.
tamim: Complete, whole.
תָּמִים
The same word family makes “sincere” a question of completeness, not merely a feeling.
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
To be firm, steady, or reliable.
Truth is connected to firmness: what is true holds steady when its consequences are counted. Here, the claim that the kingship was truly established is tested alongside the treatment of Jerubbaal and his household.
ALSO GROWS
amen: Firm, so be it.
אָמֵן
The shared root links truth with what can be affirmed as steady.
emunah: Steadiness, trust.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch carries the root’s firmness into a reliable way of standing.
גְּמוּל
gemul
GROWS FROM
גמל
g-m-l
To deal out or recompense.
“Deserving” carries the sense of recompense: the hands’ dealings become the measure of what is returned. The question turns on what Jerubbaal has done and whether the treatment he receives corresponds to it.
ALSO GROWS
gemul: Recompense, return for a deed.
גְּמוּל
It makes the verse’s test reciprocal: actions are weighed by the return they meet.
gamal: To deal with or repay.
גָּמַל
This verb keeps attention on the act of dealing, which the verse places under examination.
THE PATTERN
Integrity is proved when a public claim and the return of one’s actions agree.
The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.The same Hebrew word אֱמֶת (emet, truth) appears here and in Psalm 15:2. Judges tests truth through public dealings; the psalm joins truth in the heart to the way a person walks and works.
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