What Does 1 Samuel 10:21 Mean?
When he had made the tribe of Benjamin draw near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken. And when they sought him, he could not be found.
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
When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found.THE KEY
The verb translated “taken” also means “caught” or “seized,” so selection here carries an edge of capture even as Saul remains hidden.
THE MEANING
A process can identify you while you are still hidden from view. Being selected does not automatically make you visible or reachable to the people searching for you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that being chosen means you are instantly present, accessible, or seen.
THE ROOT
וַתִּלָּכֵד
wattilaked
GROWS FROM
לכד
To catch, capture, or seize.
The family of Matri and Saul are both described with forms of lakad. English “taken” can sound like a neutral selection, while the Hebrew also carries the feel of catching or seizing.
ALSO GROWS
wayyilkedu: They captured Jerusalem.
וַיִּלְכְּדוּ
The same verb describes taking a city, keeping the force of capture audible beneath “taken.”
yilkedunu: A person’s own iniquities seize him.
יִלְכְּדֻנוֹ
Here the root describes being caught and held, revealing the sharper edge that English “taken” can conceal.
THE PATTERN
Casting lots turns an unseen selection into a named person.
And they said each to his fellow, Come, let us make the lots fall, so that we may know on whose account this evil is upon us. So they made the lots fall, and the lot fell upon Jonah.And Saul said, Let the lots fall between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was seized.And they cast their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven sent ones.THE THREAD
His own crookednesses catch the wicked, and he is held by the cords of his falling short.The Hebrew verb translated “take” here comes from the same root, lakad, as “taken” in Saul’s selection. Proverbs makes the root’s sense of capture plain, giving Saul’s selection a sharper edge without equating it with wrongdoing.
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