What Does Judges 6:25 Mean?
And it came to be that same night, that the LORD said to him, Take your father's young bull, even the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah pole that is beside it.
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 it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:THE KEY
“Baal” means “master,” so this is not a neutral family monument but a rival claim to mastery standing inside the household.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader before an inherited allegiance that still claims sacred space: what is passed down can still stand as a rival authority. Here the household altar and its attached Asherah are ordered removed, making clear that family inheritance does not make a claim on devotion untouchable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what a family hands down must remain sacred dissolves here: the father’s altar is named as something to tear down.
THE ROOT
הַבַּעַל
habbaʿal
GROWS FROM
בעל
b-ʿ-l
To own or be master; also, husband.
“Baal” in this verse is habbaʿal. בעל (baʿal, “master” or “owner”) is both the word behind this name and a common title for a husband or owner. The root makes the command precise: the father’s property is also a site where another master is represented, and its altar is not treated as neutral inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
baʿal: Master, owner, or husband.
בַּעַל
The divine name uses this ordinary title; the rival deity is named as a master.
beʿalim: Masters or owners; also the plural name Baalim.
בְּעָלִים
The plural form carries the same title, making Baal legible as a claim of mastery rather than a sound without meaning.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The verse names a household shrine by the act of sacrifice at its center. English “altar” can sound like a static object; the root keeps the offering, and therefore the allegiance being enacted, inside the word.
ALSO GROWS
zābaḥ: To slaughter as a sacrifice.
זָבַח
This verb gives the altar its root: the structure is defined by the offering enacted on it.
zevaḥ: Sacrifice; sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
The noun carries the same root and shows that an offering can culminate in a meal shared at the altar.
תִּכְרֹת
tikhrōt
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
To cut, sever, or cut off.
“cut down” in this verse is tikhrōt. The verb means a real cut here; it also appears in the idiom כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit, “cut a covenant”). That shared root gives severing a decisive boundary-force, while this verse specifically directs it against the Asherah.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut, sever, or cut off.
כָּרַת
The same root makes the command physical and decisive: the Asherah is to be severed from the place.
keritut: Severance; divorce or dismissal.
כְּרִיתוּת
This noun carries the root into the ending of a bond, widening the sense of separation while the verse’s cut remains literal.
THE PATTERN
Rival allegiance is exposed when its physical supports are removed, clearing space for devotion to the living God.
But you shall tear down their altars, break their standing stones, and cut down their groves.For they themselves report concerning us what sort of entry we had to you, and how you turned around to God from the idols, to serve the living and true God.THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.The verb translated “cut down” here is כרת (karat, “cut” or “sever”). Genesis uses that same verb in כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit, “cut a covenant”), rendered “made a covenant,” so English hides the shared root beneath dismantling an idol here and establishing covenant there.
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