What Does Judges 18:15 Mean?
And they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and asked after his wholeness.
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 they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and saluted him.THE KEY
At Micah’s house, his name asks “Who is like the LORD?”, the visitors’ “salute” is an asking after the Levite’s שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness).
THE MEANING
A greeting can carry a real question about your wholeness, not just a social acknowledgment. Here, the visitors turn toward a person and ask after his well-being at Micah’s house; Micah’s name asks, “Who is like the LORD?”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A greeting is empty etiquette with no concern for the other person’s well-being.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
To be complete or whole; to make whole, restore, or make good.
“asked after his wholeness” in this verse is shalom. The English “saluted” hides that the men ask the Levite for shalom. The root’s branches carry both being whole and making good what is owed, so this greeting reaches toward a person’s well-being, not merely a polite exchange.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Complete, whole, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the greeting an inquiry into the person’s wholeness, beyond whether conflict is absent.
shillem: Repay, recompense, or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
The same root connects wholeness with making good what is owed or missing; shalom carries a sense of well-being restored.
THE PATTERN
Peace enters an encounter as a spoken request for the other person’s wholeness.
And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down, and kissed him; and they asked each other after their wholeness; and they came into the tent.And he asked them about their wholeness, and said, Is your father whole, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?Then on that same evening, the first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples had gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, Wholeness be with you.THE THREAD
And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down, and kissed him; and they asked each other after their wholeness; and they came into the tent.Exodus 18:7 uses the same Hebrew שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) in the phrase rendered “asked each other of their welfare.” The shared root reveals that what Judges calls a greeting is an inquiry into another person’s wholeness.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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