What Does Judges 9:40 Mean in the King James?

And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of the gate.

Judges 9:40 · 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 verb for Abimelech’s chase is also used to pursue peace, so the force of pursuit takes its direction from what it follows.

THE MEANING

The verse holds one man’s flight beside the many bodies that fall, and carries the chase all the way to the gate. Escape is motion away from the pursuer; it does not guarantee that the violence ends.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie is that getting away means the danger is over: here, the chase continues and many are left fallen and wounded.

THE ROOT

רָדַף

radaph

GROWS FROM

רדף

to pursue, chase after

“chased” in this verse is radaph. This root names directed pursuit, not violence by itself; elsewhere it describes pursuing peace. English keeps those uses far apart, while Hebrew keeps the same force available for either object.

ALSO GROWS

rodef: pursuer; one who chases

רֹדֵף

This names the agent of pursuit, the role Abimelech occupies in the verse.

redifah: pursuit, chasing

רְדִיפָה

The action can be named without fixing its object; Psalm 34:14 directs it toward peace.

חֲלָלִים

ḥălālîm

GROWS FROM

חלל

to pierce, wound, or kill

The Hebrew uses one plural word for the fallen, meaning pierced or slain ones. The KJV’s “overthrown and wounded” opens that single word into the bodily cost of the chase.

ALSO GROWS

ḥālal: to pierce, wound, or kill

חָלַל

The verb holds the bodily violence beneath the verse’s description of the casualties.

ḥālāl: a pierced or slain person

חָלָל

This singular form names the person represented by the plural in the verse.

אֲבִימֶלֶךְ

Avimelekh

GROWS FROM

מלך

to reign, rule

“Abimelech” in this verse is Avimelekh. The name is commonly parsed as “my father is king”: ⁨אֲבִי⁩ (avi, my father) + ⁨מֶלֶךְ⁩ (melekh, king). Its kingship element travels with the figure driving the chase, keeping rule and pursuit in the same frame.

ALSO GROWS

melekh: king

מֶלֶךְ

This is the king element in Abimelech’s name.

malkut: kingship, reign

מַלְכוּת

This branch names the rule carried in the name’s king element.

THE PATTERN

Pursuit takes its character from what it follows: the same force can carry violence or be directed toward peace.

But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

Exodus 14:9 · KJVThe Hebrew root ⁨רדף⁩ (radaph, pursue) drives this scene too, where the object of pursuit is a people being overtaken.

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Psalm 34:14 · KJVThe same Hebrew root ⁨רדף⁩ (radaph, pursue) follows peace here, showing that the force of pursuit does not determine its object.

Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

1 Peter 3:11 · KJVThe Greek verb ⁨διώκω⁩ (diōkō) means “pursue”; here, as in the Psalm, the pursuit is directed toward peace.

THE THREAD

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Psalm 34:14 · KJV

Judges’ ⁨רָדַף⁩ (radaph, pursue or chase) and the Psalm’s ⁨וְרָדְפֵהוּ⁩ (veradfehu, and pursue it) grow from the same root. In Judges, pursuit closes on a fleeing man; in the Psalm, its object is peace, the root keeps its force while the object changes.

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