What Does Judges 18:17 Mean in the King James?
And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
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 verse sets human-made devotion beside armed power: the carved and poured objects are taken while the priest remains at the gate.
THE MEANING
Sacred objects and weapons of war occupy the same scene: five men take the carved and cast objects while the priest stands at the gate with six hundred armed men. The objects move through human hands, and the transfer takes place under the presence of organized force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That sacred status makes an object untouchable: here, people take the cult objects under armed force.
THE ROOT
מַסֵּכָה
massekah
GROWS FROM
נסך
to pour out; to cast by pouring
“molten image” in this verse is massekah. English presents a finished object, while its Hebrew name carries the act of pouring that formed it. The same root names a poured libation, linking a cast image and a ritual drink offering through the language of pouring.
ALSO GROWS
nasakh: to pour out
נָסַךְ
This verb names the action carried inside the Hebrew word for the cast image.
nesekh: a poured drink offering, or libation
נֶסֶךְ
The shared root links the cast object with a ritual offering poured out.
פֶּסֶל
pesel
GROWS FROM
פסל
to hew, cut, or carve into shape
“graven image” in this verse is pesel. The English noun can sound like a category; its Hebrew root points to something made by cutting and shaping. The same verb describes hewing stone tablets, so the root names the craft without making every hewn object the same kind of thing.
ALSO GROWS
pasal: to hew or carve
פָּסַל
This verb names the shaping act behind the graven image.
pesilim: graven images, carved idols
פְּסִילִים
The plural noun retains the act of carving in the name of the objects.
THE PATTERN
An image treated as divine remains dependent on human hands for its making and movement.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.“Graven image” in Judges and “hew” in Exodus come from the same root, פסל (pasal), meaning to hew or carve. The root names the act of shaping material; the surrounding words show what the shaped object is for.
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