What Does Judges 9:53 Mean in the King James?
And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.
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 Hebrew root for breaking Abimelech’s skull also names oppression, letting one word hold bodily shattering and social crushing together.
THE MEANING
A woman casts a millstone onto Abimelech’s head, and the blow breaks his skull. His name, אֲבִימֶלֶךְ (ʾAvimelekh, “my father is king”), sets a claim of kingship beside the body’s exposure to violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that power makes its bearer untouchable does not survive this blow.
THE ROOT
וַתָּרִץ
vattarits
GROWS FROM
רצץ
ratsats
to crush, break in pieces, or oppress
English presents “brake” as a physical action, while this Hebrew root also names oppression and crushing. The same seed holds a broken skull, a bruised reed, and a poor person ground down, connecting bodily and social violence.
ALSO GROWS
ratsuts: bruised; crushed
רָצוּץ
Isaiah 42:3 uses this form for a bruised reed, showing the root also describes a body already made fragile.
ritsats: he crushed; he oppressed
רִצַּץ
Job 20:19 uses this verb for crushing the poor, carrying the same force from physical injury into social oppression.
THE PATTERN
Violence used to seize and hold power returns upon the one who wields it.
Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.The word “bruised” is רָצוּץ (ratsuts, crushed), from the same root רצץ (ratsats) as Judges’ “brake.” One verse names a skull crushed by violence; the other says a bruised reed is not crushed further.
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