What Does Judges 9:29 Mean in the King James?

And would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.

Judges 9:29 · 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 Hebrew frames the wish as a question of who will place the people in the speaker’s hand, making the giver of power part of the claim.

THE MEANING

Here, a desire for command takes the form of imagining people placed in one’s hand; the wish is immediately joined to removing a rival and calling him into the open. The verse holds desire, threat, and provocation together in one utterance.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A declared claim over people is not the same as their being placed in one’s hand; the verse exposes the gap between wanting power and possessing it.

THE ROOT

מִי יִתֵּן אֶת־הָעָם הַזֶּה בְּיָדִי

mi-yitten et-ha‘am hazzeh

GROWS FROM

נתן

natan

To give, set, or place; to transfer something into another’s keeping.

““Would to God … were under my hand”” in this verse is mi-yitten et-ha‘am hazzeh. The Hebrew wish begins with mi-yitten, “Who will give?”, while the KJV renders the whole thought as “would to God.” The underlying verb makes the imagined transfer explicit: the people are to be placed in the speaker’s hand before he removes Abimelech.

ALSO GROWS

natan: To give, set, or place.

נָתַן

This verb names the transfer the wish depends on: someone must place the people in the speaker’s hand.

mattanah: A gift; something given.

מַתָּנָה

This related word carries the same seed of giving, revealing how the root pictures what is received as something placed into another’s keeping.

THE PATTERN

Power is pictured as a transfer into someone’s hand, so words of possession also reveal who is imagined to grant it.

But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;

Genesis 39:8 · KJVJoseph describes his authority through what his master has placed in his hand; control is received as a trust.

Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.

Psalm 31:5 · KJVThe speaker places his ruach, his breath, into God’s hand, turning the image from command over others to entrustment.

And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

Luke 4:6 · KJVThe Slanderer describes authority as something delivered to him and offered onward, making power a transfer claimed by a speaker.

THE THREAD

This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

1 Samuel 17:46 · KJV

The same Hebrew root, ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, give or place), sits behind the wish that someone put the people into the speaker’s hand and the declaration that the LORD will give the opponent into David’s hand. One leaves the giver unstated; the other names the LORD.

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