What Does 1 Samuel 11:5 Mean?
And, behold, Saul came behind the oxen out of the field, and Saul said, What ails the people that they weep? And they told him the word of the men of Jabesh.
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, behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.THE KEY
The asked-for king is defined here by a question: he notices the people’s grief and receives the story behind it.
THE MEANING
You can see grief before you know what has caused it. Saul asks what the weeping means and hears the words of Jabesh; the tears become intelligible through the account shared with him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Tears alone do not reveal the full cause of distress; seeing grief is not yet knowing its story.
THE ROOT
וַיְסַפְּרוּ
wayesapperu
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
s-p-r
Count or recount; in this form, recount or tell.
“told” in this verse is wayesapperu. The Hebrew verb for telling here carries the sense of recounting, of giving an account. The people’s words bring the cause behind the tears into a form Saul can hear.
ALSO GROWS
sāfar: To count, number, or recount.
סָפַר
The root links counting details with recounting them, giving their report the shape of an account.
sēfer: Book or written account.
סֵפֶר
The shared root connects a spoken recounting with an account preserved in writing.
דִּבְרֵי
divrê
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
Speak; word or matter.
The Hebrew phrase is “the words of the men of Jabesh.” In this word family, speech and the matter spoken about belong together: the report carries the men’s situation, not just information about it.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This branch holds speech and the matter at hand in the same word family.
dibbēr: Spoke or communicated.
דִּבֵּר
The verbal form keeps the report connected to the people speaking it.
שָׁאוּל
Sha'ul
GROWS FROM
ש־א־ל
sh-ʾ-l
Ask or request; the name carries the sense “asked for.”
Saul’s name carries the sense “asked for,” from the root of asking and requesting. Here he asks what is troubling the people, an echo that places the asked-for king beside their voiced distress.
ALSO GROWS
sha'al: To ask, inquire, or request.
שָׁאַל
This verb gives the name its “asked for” sense.
she'elah: A question or request.
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun makes the root’s asking sense explicit, echoing Saul’s question about the weeping.
THE PATTERN
Grief becomes a shared reality when someone receives its visible or spoken signal with attention.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the face of the God of the heavens.When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping with her, he snorted in his breath and was stirred within himself.THE THREAD
And they spoke to him, saying, If you will be a servant to this people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants all the days.The same ד־ב־ר word family appears in both verses: Saul receives the words and matter of Jabesh, while Rehoboam is urged to answer the people with good words. The shared root places a leader’s hearing alongside the speech of the people.
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