What Does Judges 9:31 Mean in the King James?
And he sent messengers unto Abimelech privily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to Shechem; and, behold, they fortify the city against thee.
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
A hidden warning meets a city being pressed in: the danger is moving both through secret speech and around the walls.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you where a message moves in secret while pressure gathers in plain sight. It names Gaal and his brothers in Shechem and shows the city closing in against Abimelech; hidden information and visible danger occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is hidden has no force until it becomes visible: the concealed message already names the threat closing in.
THE ROOT
בְּתָרְמָה
bə-tormāh
GROWS FROM
רמה
Deceive, beguile, or deal treacherously.
The word translated “privily” carries the shade of deceit or treachery, so the message is more than quiet speech: it moves under cover. The hidden channel is part of the danger the verse reveals.
ALSO GROWS
rāmāh: To deceive or deal treacherously.
רָמָה
This verb shows the active force within the secrecy: concealed action can shape what another person knows.
mirmāh: Deceit or treachery.
מִרְמָה
This noun shares the root and appears in Genesis 27:35, where hidden dealings change the course of a family’s blessing.
צָרִים
tsārîm
GROWS FROM
צור
Bind, confine, or besiege; press in around.
“fortify” in this verse is tsārîm. Alongside the sense of fortifying, the Hebrew verb pictures besieging: pressure closing around a city. Related forms speak of a narrow place and distress, so the scene carries the language of constriction as well as military threat.
ALSO GROWS
māṣōr: A siege or besieged place.
מָצוֹר
This noun makes explicit the encirclement carried by the verb in the verse.
ṣar: Narrow, pressed, or an adversary.
צַר
The shared consonant pattern joins the besieging force with narrowness and opposition.
THE PATTERN
A concealed threat becomes knowable when a warning reaches the person it endangers.
But Jonathan Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.THE THREAD
And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.“Privily” in Judges carries the root רמה (r-m-h; rāmāh), the root behind deceit; Genesis 27:35 uses its related noun מִרְמָה (mirmāh, deceit). Together the verses show how concealed dealings can alter what another person knows and what follows.
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