What Does Judges 18:17 Mean?
Then the five men who had gone to scout out the land went up, and came in there, and took the hewn image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the poured image. And the priest stood at the opening of the gate with the six hundred men girded with weapons of war.
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 the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.THE KEY
The verse sets human-made devotion beside armed power: the carved and poured objects are taken while the priest remains at the gate.
THE MEANING
Sacred objects and weapons of war occupy the same scene: five men take the carved and cast objects while the priest stands at the gate with six hundred armed men. The objects move through human hands, and the transfer takes place under the presence of organized force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That sacred status makes an object untouchable: here, people take the cult objects under armed force.
THE ROOT
מַסֵּכָה
massekah
GROWS FROM
נסך
to pour out; to cast by pouring
“poured image” in this verse is massekah. English presents a finished object, while its Hebrew name carries the act of pouring that formed it. The same root names a poured libation, linking a cast image and a ritual drink offering through the language of pouring.
ALSO GROWS
nasakh: to pour out
נָסַךְ
This verb names the action carried inside the Hebrew word for the cast image.
nesekh: a poured drink offering, or libation
נֶסֶךְ
The shared root links the cast object with a ritual offering poured out.
פֶּסֶל
pesel
GROWS FROM
פסל
to hew, cut, or carve into shape
“hewn image” in this verse is pesel. The English noun can sound like a category; its Hebrew root points to something made by cutting and shaping. The same verb describes hewing stone tablets, so the root names the craft without making every hewn object the same kind of thing.
ALSO GROWS
pasal: to hew or carve
פָּסַל
This verb names the shaping act behind the graven image.
pesilim: graven images, carved idols
פְּסִילִים
The plural noun retains the act of carving in the name of the objects.
THE PATTERN
An image treated as divine remains dependent on human hands for its making and movement.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.Bel kneels, Nebo stoops. Your images are upon the beasts and upon the cattle. What you lift is a load for the faint beast.They are like the palm, hammered out, but they do not speak. They must be carried, for they cannot step. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do harm, nor is it in them to do good.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Moses, Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones. I will write upon these tablets the words that were upon the first tablets, which you broke.“Graven image” in Judges and “hew” in Exodus come from the same root, פסל (pasal), meaning to hew or carve. The root names the act of shaping material; the surrounding words show what the shaped object is for.
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