What Does Judges 3:18 Mean?
And when he had finished bringing the gift near, he sent away the people who carried the gift.
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 when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present.THE KEY
The hidden motion of the offering is approach, and its completion is the release of its bearers.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two motions together now: the gift is brought near, then the people carrying it are released. Completion does not leave the carriers bound to what they have brought; it lets them go.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that giving means staying attached to what you gave: here the completed act ends with its bearers sent away.
THE ROOT
וַיְשַׁלַּח
wayeshallaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
Send forth, dispatch, release, let go.
“sent away” in this verse is wayeshallaḥ. The verb carries the movement of sending forth and letting go. Here it is applied to the people who bear the gift, so the offering’s completion is followed by the release of its carriers.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent; the name of waters associated with Shiloah and Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
In John 9:7, Siloam is interpreted as “Sent”; the name extends this root’s movement into a setting of restored sight.
mishloach: Sending or dispatch.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
Esther 9:22 uses this word for the sending of portions from one person to another, showing a gift continuing its movement outward.
לְהַקְרִיב
lehaqriv
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach, draw near.
“bringing near” in this verse is lehaqriv. The verb translated “offer” comes from a root of drawing near, and its word family includes the offering brought near. The verse moves from approach to release: the gift is brought into nearness, and then its carriers are sent forth.
ALSO GROWS
qorban: Offering, something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
It makes the gift’s movement toward nearness visible within the act of offering.
qarov: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
This branch preserves the root’s language of proximity inside the verse’s act of bringing an offering near.
THE PATTERN
A completed act of bringing near gives way to sending forth, releasing what has been carried or gathered into its next movement.
The goat carries upon himself all their crookedness into a cut-off land, and he sends the goat away into the wilderness.And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they let them go.THE THREAD
The goat carries upon himself all their crookedness into a cut-off land, and he sends the goat away into the wilderness.The same Hebrew verb שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release) appears as “let go” there and “sent away” here. Both verses place that release after a bearer has carried something, revealing a shared movement from carrying to letting go.
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