What Does 1 Samuel 1:10 Mean?

And she was bitter in her living soul, and she prayed to the LORD, and wept hard.

1 Samuel 1:10 · 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 she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.

THE KEY

Here, the bitter living self does not have to become composed before it can pray.

THE MEANING

Bitterness can reach your whole living self and still be carried into prayer as it is. Tears and prayer occupy the same moment before the LORD; the grief is present, not hidden.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that prayer must wait until the pain is under control.

THE ROOT

נֶפֶשׁ

nefesh

GROWS FROM

נ־פ־שׁ

n-p-sh

The living self: a person as a whole life.

“bitter in her living soul” in this verse is nefesh. Nefesh names a living person, not a separate, abstract part of one. The phrase places bitterness in her whole living self, while the same root can also speak of being refreshed.

ALSO GROWS

nafshi: my living soul

נַפְשִׁי

Psalm 42:5 uses this form as the speaker addresses the downcast living self directly.

wayyinnāphaš: and he was refreshed

וַיִּנָּפַשׁ

Exodus 31:17 uses a related verb from this root for being refreshed, showing a range that includes both living person and restoration.

מָרַת

marat

GROWS FROM

מ־ר־ר

m-r-r

To be bitter or embittered.

The root carries the taste of bitterness into the description of inner anguish. English can make “bitterness of soul” sound like a detached feeling; the Hebrew phrase places it in the taste of a whole living self.

ALSO GROWS

mar: bitter

מַר

This adjective preserves the root’s direct sense of bitterness in taste and experience.

merorim: bitter herbs

מְרֹרִים

The bitter herbs of Exodus 12:8 make the root’s sensory quality concrete, illuminating the vivid force of “bitterness” here.

THE PATTERN

Prayer can carry grief openly, and the LORD receives the voice that grief gives it.

Turn aside from me, all you workers of crookedness; for the LORD hears the voice of my weeping.

Psalm 6:8 · SDVThe weeping voice is treated as heard by the LORD, just as grief and prayer meet in this verse.

In the days of his flesh, he brought near prayers and clinging pleas, with a strong outcry and tears, to the one able to deliver him out of death, and he was heard because of his awe.

Hebrews 5:7 · SDVPrayer, crying, and tears occupy the same moment, and the verse says the one praying is heard.

Likewise the breath also takes hold alongside our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought; but the breath itself approaches on our behalf with groans too deep for speech.

Romans 8:26 · SDVWhen words are absent, groaning still belongs to intercession, widening the picture of prayer beyond composed speech.

THE THREAD

Why are you bowed down, O my living soul? Why do you roar over me? Wait upon God. I shall yet extend my hands to him for the deliverances of his face.

Psalm 42:5 · SDV

“My soul” is nefesh again: the living self that feels the distress is spoken to directly. Here the bitter nefesh is met by a voice that can name its downcast state while remaining in relation to God.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us