What Does Judges 18:5 Mean?
And they said to him, Ask of God, we pray you, that we may perceive whether the way on which we go shall break through.
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 said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.THE KEY
They ask whether the road they are already walking will succeed, without asking whether success makes it the right road.
THE MEANING
You can ask for certainty about a path already in motion, wanting to know how it ends before facing what it is. The verse holds open a crucial gap: a course may advance and still not be right. The question speaks now wherever success is treated as the whole meaning of guidance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A path’s success is not the same as its rightness.
THE ROOT
תַצְלִיחַ
ha-tatsliach
GROWS FROM
צלח
ts-l-ḥ
To advance or pass through; by extension, to succeed or prosper.
“shall break through” in this verse is ha-tatsliach. The word carries the sense of a route making headway, not simply having a good condition. The question asks whether their course will advance; the root itself does not make success proof that the course is right.
ALSO GROWS
tsalach: To pass through or advance.
צָלַח
It gives “prosper” a sense of movement along a course.
hitzliach: To cause to succeed or prosper.
הִצְלִיחַ
This causative form shows success as something brought about, not a verdict on the path’s character.
דַּרְכֵּנוּ
darkenu
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread or make a track; the noun refers to a way or path.
The Hebrew pairs “our way” with “which we are walking on it,” layering the trodden path with the act of walking it. The course is not abstract: it is already being lived as they ask where it leads.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: A way, road, or course.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the path whose outcome they want to know.
darakh: To tread or march.
דָּרַךְ
The verb behind the path word brings the walkers’ present movement into view.
וְנֵדְעָה
vened'ah
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“perceive” in this verse is vened'ah. The request joins knowing to a hoped-for outcome: they want to know whether the route will prosper. The root can also describe knowing by encounter, which leaves a tension between receiving a forecast and truly knowing the way.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or recognize.
יָדַע
It is the verb behind their request to know the outcome.
da'at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This related noun shows the wider field of knowing that sits beneath their request for an answer.
THE PATTERN
A hoped-for outcome can be mistaken for confirmation that a chosen way is right.
There is a way straight before a man, but its latter end is the ways of death.O LORD, I perceive that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in a man who walks to set firm his steps.Instead, you ought to say, "If the LORD wills, we will live, and do this or that."THE THREAD
And the priest said to them, Go in wholeness. Your way on which you go is before the LORD.The priest’s reply repeats דרך (derekh, way), the same root used for “our way” here. They ask about the course they are already walking, and the answer sounds like reassurance about that very course.
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