What Does 1 Samuel 1:3 Mean?
And this man went up out of his city yearly to bow down and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.
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
And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “went up” shares its root with “burnt offering,” making ascent both a bodily movement and a sacrificial image.
THE MEANING
Your approach to the LORD takes physical form: you go up from your city, bow down, and offer. The yearly return gives worship a rhythm, while “the LORD of hosts” holds the many under one sovereign name. The verse places the worshipper, the offering, and the priests together at the place of encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the idea that worship is only private feeling or thought: here it is a repeated, embodied approach that includes bowing and an offering.
THE ROOT
וְעָלָה
ve-ʿālah
GROWS FROM
עָלָה
ʿ-l-h
To ascend, go up, or rise.
“went up” in this verse is ve-ʿālah. The same root names the worshipper’s upward journey and the עֹלָה, the burnt offering that rises in smoke. English separates those pictures, while Hebrew lets bodily ascent and sacrificial ascent echo each other.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: A burnt offering; an offering that rises.
עֹלָה
It shares the root of “went up,” linking the journey toward the LORD with the rising offering.
maʿalah: An ascent or upward step.
מַעֲלָה
It keeps the root’s sense of rising visible as a movement made step by step.
לִזְבֹּחַ
lizbōaḥ
GROWS FROM
זָבַח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter an animal for sacrifice.
“to sacrifice” in this verse is lizbōaḥ. The root connects the act of sacrifice with both the altar and the sacrificial meal. The yearly approach is therefore an enacted encounter, not merely an inward intention.
ALSO GROWS
zevaḥ: A sacrifice, often including a sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
It names the offering at the heart of the yearly approach.
mizbēaḥ: An altar.
מִזְבֵּחַ
Its formation from the same root ties the place of offering to the act of sacrifice.
צְבָאוֹת
tsevaʾot
GROWS FROM
צָבָא
ṣ-b-ʾ
A host or army; to muster or serve in an ordered host.
“Hosts” names ordered forces, while the same root can describe service within that order. The verse sets one man’s yearly ascent within the scale of the LORD’s many hosts.
ALSO GROWS
tsava: A host or army.
צָבָא
It shows the scale carried by the title “LORD of hosts.”
tsava: To muster or serve in an appointed duty.
צָבָא
It brings service as well as an assembled host into the title’s root family.
THE PATTERN
Approach to the LORD repeatedly appears as movement toward divine presence, expressed through gathering and embodied nearness.
Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the face of the Lord, the LORD.A Song of degrees of David. I rejoice when they say to me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.Let us draw near with a true heart in the fullness of trust, our hearts sprinkled from a burdened shared sight, and our bodies bathed in clean waters.THE THREAD
And Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and sent up rising offerings on the altar.The “burnt offerings” here are עֹלוֹת (ʿolot), from עָלָה, the same root behind “went up” in 1 Samuel. The worshipper’s ascent and the offering’s ascent share one Hebrew seed.
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