What Does Judges 18:20 Mean in the King James?
And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.
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 describes the priest’s heart as “pleased” with a root that also means “do well,” even as he takes the carved image and joins a new allegiance.
THE MEANING
The priest feels glad as he takes the ephod, the teraphim, and the carved image into the crowd. The verse speaks now wherever satisfaction makes a new allegiance feel settled: gladness can accompany a choice without proving its direction is sound.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If I feel pleased with my choice, that feeling proves the choice is sound.
THE ROOT
וַיִּיטַב
vayyitav
GROWS FROM
יטב
To be good or pleasing; in a related verb form, to do well.
“glad” in this verse is vayyitav. The Hebrew says, closely, that the priest’s heart “became pleasing,” using יטב, a root that also describes doing well. That shared word holds his inward gladness beside his outward taking: the feeling is clear, but the verse puts it beside the objects he carries and the company he joins.
ALSO GROWS
yitav: It will be good or pleasing.
יֵיטַב
This form expresses a state of being pleasing, close to how the verse describes the priest’s heart.
teitiv: You do well.
תֵּיטִיב
Genesis 4:7 uses this form of the same root for action, bringing “doing well” alongside the priest’s inward gladness.
THE PATTERN
Inward approval can accompany a choice whose direction is compromised.
In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.THE THREAD
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.Genesis uses יטב (y-t-b, “do well”) for action; Judges uses the same root for the priest’s heart being pleased. That shared root places inward gladness beside outward action and sharpens the tension in this scene.
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