What Does Luke 18:5 Mean in the King James?
Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
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 word translated “troubleth” pictures a blow beneath the eye: her repeated arrival lands on the judge like a beating until he grants her justice.
THE MEANING
The widow keeps bringing her need before an authority who neither reveres God nor cares about people. Her continual return wears down his refusal, and he acts to give her justice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that an appeal has no force unless the person hearing it already cares: even this unjust judge responds to the widow’s repeated presence.
THE ROOT
ὑπωπιάζῃ
hypōpiazē
GROWS FROM
ὑπωπιάζω
hypōpiazō
To strike beneath the eye; figuratively, to buffet or wear someone down.
The word translated “troubleth” pictures a blow beneath the eye, giving the widow’s repeated arrival a physical force English softens into annoyance. The same verb appears for buffeting the body in 1 Corinthians 9:27, linking her pressure on the judge to the language of a body being struck.
ALSO GROWS
hypōpiazō: To strike beneath the eye; figuratively, to buffet or wear down.
ὑπωπιάζω
In 1 Corinthians 9:27 this verb describes the speaker keeping his body under discipline, showing the force carried by the widow’s “troubleth.”
hypōpion: The area beneath the eye; a bruise or black eye.
ὑπώπιον
This related form preserves the concrete image beneath the figurative sense of being worn down.
ἐκδικήσω
ekdikēsō
GROWS FROM
δίκη
dikē
Justice, right, or what is due.
“avenge” in this verse is ekdikēsō. The verb names vindicating someone and giving justice its due. Here even a reluctant judge decides that the widow’s claim must be answered.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: Justice, right, or what is due.
δίκη
This is the seed behind the judge’s decision to act on the widow’s claim.
ekdikēsis: Justice or vindication.
ἐκδίκησις
This noun from the same word family appears in the following verses as Jesus speaks of God bringing justice to those who cry out.
THE PATTERN
Repeated appeal keeps a need present until the one with power responds.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth.I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.THE THREAD
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.“I keep under” translates ὑπωπιάζω (hypōpiazō), the same verb used for the widow’s “troubleth.” Its image of a blow connects bodily buffeting there with the pressure of her repeated return here.
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