What Does Judges 17:3 Mean in the King James?

And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.

Judges 17:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse lets one act call the silver set apart for the LORD while assigning it to become an image.

THE MEANING

The verse holds one silver in two descriptions: it is said to be set apart for the LORD, and it is assigned to make a carved image and a cast image. The sacred claim and the use of the silver remain side by side, revealing how a declaration can sit beside a use that gives it a different shape.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Calling something set apart for the LORD does not guarantee that what is done with it embodies that dedication.

THE ROOT

הַקְדֵּשׁ הִקְדַּשְׁתִּי

haqdēsh hiqdāshtî

GROWS FROM

קדש

Set apart, consecrate; designate for a particular use.

“wholly dedicated” in this verse is haqdēsh hiqdāshtî. The Hebrew intensifies the claim: “set apart, I have set apart.” Yet the same sentence assigns the silver to become images, placing the declaration and its intended use together.

ALSO GROWS

qadosh: Set apart

קָדוֹשׁ

This familiar branch makes the mother’s claim concrete: the silver is marked out for the LORD.

qodesh: That which is set apart; sacredness

קֹדֶשׁ

It echoes the silver’s claimed status while the verse shows what is being made from it.

miqdash: Sanctuary; set-apart place

מִקְדָּשׁ

This branch shows how the same root can describe a place designated for sacred use, sharpening the contrast with the images planned here.

וַיָּשֶׁב

wayyāshev

GROWS FROM

שוב

Turn back, return.

“restored” in this verse is wayyāshev. The silver is physically returned, but the root also names a turning back. That wider sense opens a distinction between returning an object and a person’s turning toward the LORD.

ALSO GROWS

teshuvah: Return; turning back

תְּשׁוּבָה

It carries the same return movement beyond the transfer of silver, toward a person’s reorientation.

meshuvah: Turning away; backsliding

מְשׁוּבָה

This branch shows how the same movement can describe turning away, adding tension to the claim of dedication.

THE PATTERN

A declared dedication is exposed by the use to which its object is put.

And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 32:4 · KJVGold is shaped into an image, and the thing made becomes the focus of the people’s claim.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:21 · KJVThe use and direction of what is held reveal where the heart is invested.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

1 Corinthians 10:21 · KJVThe verse makes visible that a claimed sharing has meaning in the table one actually joins.

THE THREAD

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Joel 2:13 · KJV

Judges uses the root ⁨שוב⁩ (shuv, return) for the silver being given back; Joel uses the same root for turning to the LORD. The shared root links a change of possession with a turning of the person, while leaving those two kinds of return distinct.

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