What Does 1 Samuel 10:24 Mean?
And Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people." And all the people shouted and said, "Let the king live!"
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 Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king.THE KEY
The crowd’s “God save the king” is a wish for him to live: the people answer God’s choosing by voicing life.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s choosing stands before you in a person the people can see, and they answer with a public cry for his life. Recognition and petition meet here: authority is acknowledged, while the ruler’s life is entrusted to God.
THE ROOT
יְחִי
yeḥî
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live, be alive.
“Let the king live” in this verse is yeḥî. The Hebrew cry carries the wish “may the king live.” Its root also forms words for the living and for life, so the crowd’s answer is a public petition for the king’s continued life.
ALSO GROWS
ḥay: Living; alive.
חַי
The crowd’s wish for the king to live belongs to the same word family as being alive.
ḥayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
This branch makes the life at the center of the acclamation explicit.
בָּחַר
bāḥar
GROWS FROM
בחר
To choose, select, or single out.
“chosen” in this verse is bāḥar. The line pairs choosing with seeing: Samuel points to the person in whom the LORD’s choice is made visible. The people are invited to recognize that choice in the one standing before them.
ALSO GROWS
bāḥîr: Chosen one; elect.
בָּחִיר
This noun names a person as the one selected, echoing the king identified before the assembly.
mibḥār: Choice; choicest selection.
מִבְחָר
This branch carries the act of choosing into the thing or person selected.
THE PATTERN
Public words turn a ruler’s authority into a shared petition for the ruler’s life and the community’s well-being.
And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the tent, and anointed Solomon with it. And they blew the horn, and all the people said, Let King Solomon live.And he lives, and of the gold of Sheba it is given to him. Prayer is made for him continually, and all the day they bless him.For kings, and for all who stand above; that we may lead a still and whole life in all awe and weight.THE THREAD
You shall surely set over you a king whom the LORD your God shall choose. From the midst of your brothers you shall set a king over you. You may not set a stranger over you, who is not your brother.Deuteronomy uses the same root בחר (bāḥar, to choose) for the king the LORD selects. Here Samuel makes that choice visible to the people, who answer it with their cry for the king’s life.
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