What Does 1 Kings 20:36 Mean?
Then said he to him, Because you did not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion shall strike you down. And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him, and struck him down.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him.THE KEY
The Hebrew word behind “obeyed” means “hear,” so the verse presents the fatal failure as refusing to answer the LORD’s voice.
THE MEANING
The scene speaks with brutal immediacy: refusing the LORD’s voice is followed by a lion’s attack and death. The consequence is bodily, and the verse leaves the violence exposed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that disregarding the LORD’s voice is consequence-free: here, the refusal is followed by lethal harm.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַעְתָּ
shamata
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, attend; in context, heed or respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shamata. The verb translated “obeyed” is literally about hearing or listening. In this verse, hearing the LORD’s voice includes answering it; the failure is not just missing a sound but refusing its claim on action.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
The familiar imperative holds hearing and response together, illuminating why the verse treats listening as an answerable act.
shomea: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
This form names a hearer by the act of listening; the verse shows that such hearing has consequences when the voice is refused.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s voice presses toward response; hearing is shown by the action that follows.
And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.While it is said, Today, if you will hear and respond to his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the embittering.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
But it shall be, if you do not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God, to guard and to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.The same Hebrew hearing verb and word for “voice” bind the two verses: refusing to hear the LORD’s voice is followed by consequence. Here, that consequence arrives as a lion’s immediate attack; Deuteronomy names the same structure more broadly.
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