◄ 1418. gedudah ►
Lexical Summary
gedudah: Band, troop, raiding party

Original Word: גְּדוּדָה
Part of Speech: Noun
Transliteration: gduwdah
Pronunciation: ghe-doo-dah'
Phonetic Spelling: (ghed-oo-daw')
KJV: cutting
Word Origin: [feminine participle passive of H1413 (גָּדַד - cut)]

1. an incision

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
cutting

Feminine participle passive of gadad; an incision -- cutting.

see HEBREW gadad

NAS Exhaustive Concordance
Word Origin
the same as gedud, q.v.

Topical Lexicon
Strong’s Hebrew 1418 גְּדוּדָה

Linguistic Matrix

Although the feminine noun itself is unattested in the Hebrew canon, it belongs to the word–family that yields the frequently used גְּדוּד (Strong’s 1416), “band, troop,” and the verb גָּדַד (Strong’s 1413), “to cut, invade.” The entire cluster evokes the picture of small, mobile strike forces that cut into a borderland, plunder, and withdraw. Thus גְּדוּדָה may be viewed as the abstract or collective sense of “incisions” made upon a settled people—physical, social, or spiritual.

Historical Landscape

1. Near-Eastern warfare was dominated by light detachments that harassed agricultural settlements (Job 1:15; Judges 11:3).
2. Israel experienced such raids from Amalek (1 Samuel 30:1-2), Midian (Judges 6:3-6), Moab (2 Kings 13:20), and Chaldea (Habakkuk 1:6-9).
3. Kings kept standing “bands” of professional soldiers (2 Samuel 23:8-39) both for defense and for rapid response.

Because גְּדוּדָה shares in this semantic field, it reminds the reader that border skirmishes were a chronic reality shaping daily life, economic stability, and even liturgical vocabulary: “You will be secure, for He will be your protector from the sword” (Job 5:21).

Covenant Themes

Raiding parties serve as a foil for God’s covenant faithfulness. When Israel walks in obedience, the LORD promises, “Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand” (Leviticus 26:8). Disobedience, however, opens the gates to marauders (Deuteronomy 28:49-52). The notion embedded in גְּדוּדָה therefore becomes an index of Israel’s spiritual condition—peace within the borders or vulnerability to “incisions.”

Prophetic Imagery

Prophets exploited the terror of sudden raids to underscore judgment. Obadiah warns Edom that “Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you” (Obadiah 1:7), and Micah laments, “Marshal your troops, O daughter of troops” (Micah 5:1). The vocabulary evokes surprise, loss, and the stripping away of false security, driving the hearer back to dependence on the LORD.

Foreshadowing the Messiah

David’s pursuit of the Amalekite raiders (1 Samuel 30:8: “Pursue them, for you will surely overtake them and rescue the captives”) prefigures the Son of David who invades the dominion of darkness to redeem captives (Colossians 1:13). In this light, every earthly גְּדוּדָה becomes a dim analogy to the decisive incursion of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection.

Spiritual Warfare and Pastoral Application

1. Vigilance: Just as border villages posted watchmen, believers are exhorted, “Be sober-minded and alert” (1 Peter 5:8).
2. Unity: A scattered flock is easy prey; the church is to be “perfectly united in mind and thought” (1 Corinthians 1:10).
3. Restoration: David’s recovery of all that was taken (1 Samuel 30:18-19) encourages ministries of deliverance and reconciliation.

Intertestamental and Rabbinic Echoes

Second Temple literature uses cognate terms for guerrilla units resisting imperial forces. Rabbinic Hebrew preserves גדוד for military and angelic “companies,” broadening the idea from hostile raiders to ordered ranks, hinting at the celestial hosts who “encamp around those who fear Him” (Psalm 34:7).

Related New Testament Parallels

While Greek does not preserve a direct equivalent, the motif surfaces in Luke 10:19 (“authority to trample snakes and scorpions”) and 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (“the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world”). These passages carry forward the Old Testament tension between vulnerable humanity and divine protection.

Summary

גְּדוּדָה, though itself unseen in the text, crystallizes a recurrent biblical reality: life between the promises of God and the predations of the enemy. The word family’s military overtones enrich our grasp of covenant blessing and curse, prophetic warning, and ultimately, the victory secured in Christ, who “leads us in triumphal procession” (2 Corinthians 2:14).

Links
Interlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel Texts
1417
Top of Page
Top of Page