What Does 1 Samuel 12:5 Mean?
And he said to them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed one is witness this day, that you have found nothing in my hand. And they said, He is witness.
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 he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.THE KEY
Integrity is not self-certified: Samuel’s claim about his hand is held by witnesses and answered publicly.
THE MEANING
Your integrity is shown here as something that can be examined in the open: Samuel says nothing has been found in his hand before the LORD, his anointed, and the people. Their answer makes the claim shared testimony rather than a private self-description.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief this undoes is that a clean record is established by the claimant’s word alone; here, the people themselves answer the claim.
THE ROOT
עֵד
ʿēd
GROWS FROM
עוד
ʿ-w-d
To repeat or do again; in a causative form, to testify or affirm.
English “witness” can sound like someone who merely observes; this Hebrew root also carries the sense of reaffirming testimony. The word appears three times in the verse, and the people repeat it in their answer, making Samuel’s claim public testimony.
ALSO GROWS
ləhāʿîd: To testify, attest, or affirm.
לְהָעִיד
This verbal branch shows a witness actively giving confirmation, as the people do in their reply.
ʿēdût: Testimony or attestation.
עֵדוּת
The noun names the confirmed statement itself, linking the witnesses’ words to a publicly held record.
מְשִׁיחוֹ
məšîḥô
GROWS FROM
משח
m-š-ḥ
To smear or anoint; to mark through the act of anointing.
“His anointed” carries the action of anointing within the title: this is the one marked for a role. Samuel names that appointed figure alongside the LORD as a witness, giving the testimony a public and recognized standing.
ALSO GROWS
māšaḥ: To anoint or apply oil.
מָשַׁח
The verb reveals the action inside “his anointed”: the witness bears a role marked by anointing.
mišḥāh: Anointing or anointing oil.
מִשְׁחָה
This branch names the act and its visible medium, showing that the title grows from a concrete marking.
THE PATTERN
Public truth is established through testimony that can be heard and corroborated.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand.THE THREAD
Now therefore write this song for you, and teach it to the children of Israel; set it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.The same Hebrew word for “witness” describes a song placed in the people’s mouths. Its connection to repeating and affirming echoes this verse, where the people answer Samuel by repeating the testimony.
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