What Does 1 Chronicles 10:14 Mean?

And he did not ask of the LORD, so he put him to death, and turned the kingdom around to David the son of Jesse.

1 Chronicles 10:14 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.

THE KEY

The verse turns on whom Saul seeks: as his seeking excludes the LORD, the kingdom changes hands.

THE MEANING

Saul does not seek the LORD, and the LORD kills him, then turns the kingdom to David, Jesse’s son. The verse holds the violence plainly: Saul’s death and the transfer of rule are both attributed to divine action. Its claim speaks now: the throne is answerable to the LORD and never self-secured.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The throne is not secured simply by holding it; kingship remains answerable to the LORD and may be taken away.

THE ROOT

דָּרַשׁ

darash

GROWS FROM

דרשׁ

D-R-Sh

To seek, inquire, or consult; to seek guidance or recourse.

“enquired” in this verse is darash. Here ⁨דָּרַשׁ⁩ (darash, seek or inquire) names seeking a source, not just asking for a fact. The same root describes Saul consulting a familiar spirit in the preceding verse, so the hidden contrast is not seeking versus no seeking, but which voice receives his seeking.

ALSO GROWS

midrash: Inquiry, exposition, or interpretive study.

מִדְרָשׁ

This branch shows how seeking can become a sustained search for meaning, giving “enquired” a depth beyond a single question.

doresh: One who seeks or inquires.

דֹּרֵשׁ

This form puts the root in a person: the verse names the source Saul does not turn toward.

דָּוִד

David

GROWS FROM

דּוֹד

D-W-D

Beloved; David’s name is linked to this word-family.

The verse ends by naming David, whose name is linked to ⁨דּוֹד⁩ (dod, beloved). English presents a personal name, while the Hebrew name carries its own nature into the transfer of the kingdom.

ALSO GROWS

dod: Beloved; a beloved person.

דּוֹד

This word-family gives David’s name its sense of “beloved,” a meaning carried in the verse’s final name.

dodim: Loves or love-delights.

דּוֹדִים

This related form appears in love poetry and echoes the beloved sense embedded in David’s name.

THE PATTERN

The source a person seeks shapes what they encounter and where their life is directed.

But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your living soul.

Deuteronomy 4:29 · SDVSeeking the LORD is joined to finding him, showing how the direction of seeking shapes what is encountered.

I seek the LORD, and he answers me, and snatches me out of every place of dread.

Psalm 34:4 · SDVThe seeker encounters a response from the LORD, presenting inquiry as a lived relationship rather than information-gathering.

Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7 · SDVSeeking is paired with finding, while asking and knocking lead to a response and an opening.

THE THREAD

So Saul died for his breach against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he did not guard, and also for asking counsel of one who speaks out of the ground, seeking from it.

1 Chronicles 10:13 · SDV

The Hebrew verb ⁨דָּרַשׁ⁩ (darash, seek or inquire) appears for Saul consulting the familiar spirit here and for not seeking the LORD in verse 14. His seeking is not absent; its object is elsewhere.

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