Judges 19:1:4Judg.19.1.W4TAB

וּמֶ֖לֶךְ

umelekh

and a king

Transliteration
u-ME-lekh
Extended
oo-MEH-lehkh
IPA
/uːˈmɛlɛx/

Meaning by language

English
and a king

Hebrew · tap a syllable to hear it

Result
וּ + מֶ֖ + לֶךְ
u + me + lekh
umelekh

Alphabet Analysis

Vavv as in vine; marks long ō / ū
Memm as in mother
Segholshort 'eh' as in met
Lamedl as in law
Segholshort 'eh' as in met
Kaf Sofitfinal form of Kaf — at word end
Shevasilent sheva — no sound; closes the syllable

Tap any letter to hear its name and sound

Vowels (Niqqud)

Now you try — trace the word:

The word

Word in context

  1. word

    u-ME-lekh

  2. clause

    va-ye-HI ba-ya-MIM ha-HEM u-ME-lekh EN be-yis-ra-EL

  3. sentence

    va-ye-HI ba-ya-MIM ha-HEM u-ME-lekh EN be-yis-ra-EL va-ye-HI ISH le-VI GAR be-yar-ke-TE har-e-fra-YIM va-yik-KAKH-lo i-SHA pi-LE-gesh mi-BET LE-khem ye-hu-DA

Exegesis

The negation clause u-melekh ein beyisrael {וּמֶלֶךְ אֵין בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל | wə-me·lêḵ ʾên bə-yiś-rā-ʾēl} ‘and there was no king in Israel’ highlights the absence of centralized authority characteristic of the Judges era.

Root and etymology

Rootm-l-k

to rule, to reign

In contextJudges 19:1

And it happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that a Levite sojourning in the outskirts of the hill country of Ephraim took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem of Judah .

About this coordinate

Judges 19:1:4 is a BCV:P reference — Book · Chapter · Verse · Word Position. It addresses word 4 of Judges 19:1, so the Hebrew word וּמֶ֖לֶךְ (umelekh) can be cited, linked and studied at exactly this position rather than somewhere in the verse. In the Biblical Knowledge Coordinate System the same position is written Judg.19.1.W4, which extends further down to each syllable (Judg.19.1.W4.S1) and character.