What Does Judges 18:14 Mean in the King James?
Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew says “know” twice, where English shifts the second to “consider”, so discovering what is there already carries a question about what action follows.
THE MEANING
The verse places you at the hinge between noticing what is present and deciding what to do with it. The same Hebrew verb for knowing appears first in “Do ye know?” and again in “consider what ye have to do.” Recognition does not remain passive; it opens onto a chosen act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The thought that recognition is only information, detached from whatever follows, breaks down here: the same root names knowing what is present and knowing what to do.
THE ROOT
יָדַע
yada
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, perceive, recognize.
“know / consider” in this verse is yada. The first form, “Do ye know?”, and the second, “consider,” both come from יָדַע (yada, know). The verse repeats one root, linking recognition of the objects to the question of what action follows.
ALSO GROWS
ha-yeda'tem: A question asking whether you know or recognize something.
הֲיְדַעְתֶּם
This is the first use of the root in the verse, about what is in the houses.
de'u: An imperative: know or recognize.
דְּעוּ
This is the second use of the same root, now directed toward what to do.
פֶּסֶל
pesel
GROWS FROM
פסל
p-s-l
Hew or carve.
“graven image” in this verse is pesel. The Hebrew word names a carved form, tying the object to the shaping that made it. Beside the “molten image,” it distinguishes what is carved from what is poured into shape.
ALSO GROWS
pasal: The act of cutting or shaping.
פָּסַל
This verbal branch reveals the making process beneath the image named in the verse.
pesel: An image formed by carving.
פֶּסֶל
The noun carries the act of shaping in its name.
מַסֵּכָה
massekhah
GROWS FROM
נסך
n-s-k
Pour out; cast.
“molten image” in this verse is massekhah. The word is tied to pouring: the image is named through the process that forms it. Alongside pesel, it distinguishes a poured or cast form from a carved one.
ALSO GROWS
nasakh: To pour out or cast.
נָסַךְ
This is the forming action held in the root of “molten image.”
nesekh: A drink offering, poured out.
נֵסֶךְ
The same root can name something poured out, revealing the process carried by the image’s name.
THE PATTERN
Knowing becomes a threshold to action: what is perceived enters the next choice.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.THE THREAD
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.Both passages use יָדַע (yada, know): Judges asks whether the men know what is present, then urges them to know what action follows; Psalm 1:6 says the LORD knows a person’s way. The same root can hold recognition of a situation and recognition of a whole path.
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