What Does 1 Samuel 12:25 Mean?
But if you do evil again, you will be swept away, both you and your king.
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
But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.THE KEY
The king is named inside the consequence, not above it.
THE MEANING
When you persist in harm, its consequences can reach both the people and the ruler among them. The verse holds them together in one shared exposure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A crown can shield its bearer from the consequences borne by the people.
THE ROOT
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
Rule, reign, be king.
The Hebrew word for king belongs to the same family as words for reigning and kingdom. Here, the king is part of the order under judgment, joined with the people rather than placed outside their fate.
ALSO GROWS
mālaḵ: To reign or rule.
מָלַךְ
The ruler’s office is an act of reigning, and the verse includes the ruler in the consequence.
mamlāḵāh: Kingdom or realm.
מַמְלָכָה
The king and the realm belong to one word family; the verse names both ruler and people together.
הָרֵעַ תָּרֵעוּ
hā-rēaʿ ta-rēʿû
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be bad, act wickedly, or do harm.
“do evil” in this verse is hā-rēaʿ ta-rēʿû. The Hebrew repeats this root in the phrase for doing evil, giving the conduct an emphatic, continuing force. Its word family holds evil and harm close together, so the verse speaks of actions with real consequences for the whole community.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Evil or bad.
רַע
This form names the quality present in the repeated action.
rōaʿ: Evil or harm.
רֹעַ
This noun brings the harmful character of the conduct into view.
THE PATTERN
Consequences and judgment reach across rank, joining rulers and the people they lead.
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of the bite, so with the giver of the bite to him.And it shall be, like people, like priest. I will visit upon them their ways, and return to them their deeds.For there is no partiality with God.THE THREAD
The LORD shall send upon you the cursing, the panic, and the scattering shout, in all that you stretch out your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish swiftly, because of the evil of your deeds, by which you have let go of me.The Hebrew word for “wickedness” here shares the root רעע with “do wickedly” in Samuel. Both verses connect persistent harm with ruin, and Deuteronomy makes the link between the conduct and its consequence explicit.
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