What Does 1 Samuel 6:17 Mean?
And these are the golden swellings which the Philistines turned back as a guilt offering to the LORD. One for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;THE KEY
The Hebrew names the return as an asham, guilt and its reparation, so the golden likenesses make the affliction part of a counted account.
THE MEANING
The bodily affliction is represented in gold and returned to the LORD, with one share named for each of the five cities. The verse keeps the reckoning particular rather than letting the cities blur together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that accountability can be settled with a vague token: the offering is shaped to represent the affliction and counted city by city.
THE ROOT
אָשָׁם
ʾāshām
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-š-m
Incur guilt; become liable.
“guilt offering” in this verse is ʾāshām. The word for the offering is itself אָשָׁם, which also names guilt or liability. The golden figures belong to a concrete reckoning for what has occurred, rather than an unmarked gift.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshēm: To be guilty or liable.
אָשֵׁם
The same root names the condition that makes an asham offering fitting.
ʾăshāmāh: Guilt or liability.
אֲשָׁמָה
This branch keeps the offering connected to a specific account of what has happened.
הֵשִׁיבוּ
hēshîvû
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
Turn back; return.
“turned back” in this verse is hēshîvû. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of turning something back toward its source. Here the golden likenesses are not merely given; they are returned as part of the reckoning.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return or turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
It makes the direction in the verse visible: what is sent back comes around again toward its source.
meshubah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch shows that the root carries direction: a turn can return toward, or turn away from, its source.
THE PATTERN
When a wrong is brought into account, its repair takes a concrete and measurable form.
Or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall turn it back with its head, and shall add its fifth upon it, and give it to the one to whom it belongs, on the day of his guilt offering.And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of what I have to the emptied, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I give back fourfold."THE THREAD
If a living soul acts treacherously and misses the mark through straying in the set-apart things of the LORD, then he brings to the LORD a whole ram from the flock, by your valuation in silver shekels, by the set-apart shekel, as a guilt offering.The same Hebrew word אָשָׁם (asham), meaning guilt, liability, or a guilt offering, appears in both verses. Leviticus ties the offering to a particular liability and its measured value, opening the counted, city-by-city offering in 1 Samuel as a concrete reckoning.
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