What Does 1 Samuel 10:15 Mean?
And Saul's uncle said, "Tell me, please, what Samuel said to you."
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 Saul’s uncle said, Tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “tell” links making something known with bringing it before another person.
THE MEANING
You stand at the moment when something heard is asked to become speakable. Here, “tell” carries the sense of making a matter known, bringing it before another person. The request is clear, while the answer is still out of view.
THE ROOT
הַגִּידָה
haggidah
GROWS FROM
נגד
nagad
To be in front or conspicuous; in this verb form, to make known or declare.
The verb comes from נגד (nagad), whose range joins being in front with making something known. English says “tell”; the Hebrew root also evokes bringing the matter before the listener.
ALSO GROWS
neged: Before, in front of, opposite.
נֶגֶד
This branch makes the root’s spatial sense visible: telling brings a matter before someone.
nagid: Leader, ruler; one who goes before.
נָגִיד
The same root can describe someone positioned in front, linking the act of making known with what stands before others.
THE PATTERN
Telling brings what has been heard before another person, making it available to be known.
And the thin ears swallowed the seven good ears. And I told this to the magicians, but there was none who could set it before me.And Samuel set before him every word, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD. Let him do what is good in his eyes.What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear into your ear, proclaim upon the rooftops.THE THREAD
And Saul said to his uncle, "He told us plainly that the donkeys were found." But of the word of the governance, of which Samuel spoke, he did not tell him.Verse 15 asks for disclosure with הַגִּידָה (haggidah, “tell”); verse 16 repeats that same root נגד (nagad, “make known”) for what Saul shares and what he withholds. The repeated word makes the distinction sharp: he tells his uncle about the donkeys, but not about the kingdom.
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