What Does Judges 9:44 Mean in the King James?
And Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them.
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
Hebrew repeats one verb for the force advancing to the gate and the companies attacking the fields: one assault spreads across two fronts.
THE MEANING
The attack divides into two fronts: Abimelech’s company holds the city gate, while two other companies strike everyone in the fields and kill them. The gate is occupied as the violence reaches people outside the city.
THE ROOT
פָּשְׁטוּ
pāšəṭū
GROWS FROM
פשט
To strip off; in military use, to raid or attack.
“rushed forward / ran upon” in this verse is pāšəṭū. English gives the two movements different verbs, but Hebrew repeats פשט (pāšaṭ, to raid or advance upon). The repeated root makes the gate position and the field attack parts of one spreading assault.
ALSO GROWS
stripped: Removed clothing or covering.
Genesis 37:23 uses this root when Joseph’s brothers strip off his coat; it shows the root’s concrete sense of taking something away.
invaded: Raided or attacked territory.
In 1 Samuel 27:8, the same root describes David and his men invading neighboring peoples, preserving the military sense heard here.
THE PATTERN
Coordinated force uses numbers and positioning to overwhelm the people it targets.
And he took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field, and looked, and, behold, the people were come forth out of the city; and he rose up against them, and smote them.And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him,THE THREAD
And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.The Hebrew verb פשט (pāšaṭ, to raid or advance upon) appears in both verses. In Judges, English renders it once as “rushed forward” and again as “ran upon”; in Samuel, the same root appears as “invaded,” revealing one verb for the spreading movement and the attack.
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