What Does 1 Samuel 13:13 Mean?
And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly. You have not guarded the commandment of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, for now the LORD would have set firm your kingdom over Israel for the ages.
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 Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.THE KEY
The warning makes foolishness a failure to guard an entrusted command, leaving a kingdom that could have been established unrealized.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the moment when a command placed in your care is left unguarded. It calls that failure foolish and shows its cost: a future that could have been made firm remains unrealized. The verse holds responsibility and loss together without shrinking the loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“What I do with one entrusted command cannot alter the future.” The verse answers that belief with the loss of a kingdom that could have been established for ever.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַרְתָּ
shamarta
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
sh-m-r
Guard, watch over, keep.
“guarded” in this verse is shamarta. This root carries both keeping and watching: the command is something placed under guard, not merely a rule to remember. In this sentence, failing to guard what was entrusted is followed by the loss of what could have been made firm.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper, guardian, or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The keeper actively watches over what has been placed in their care.
mishmeret: Guard duty, charge, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The command Saul fails to keep is a charge to be watched over.
הֵכִין
hekin
GROWS FROM
כון
k-w-n
Be firm; make ready or establish.
“set firm” in this verse is hekin. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of making something firm and ready to stand. The kingdom would have been established as a lasting structure, which makes the failure to guard the command consequential for the future.
ALSO GROWS
konen: Set up or establish firmly.
כּוֹנֵן
It makes explicit the firmness contained in the kingdom’s possible establishment.
makhon: A fixed place, foundation, or dwelling place.
מָכוֹן
This branch gives a sense of something prepared to stand in a settled place.
שָׁאוּל
Sha’ul
GROWS FROM
שׁאל
sh-ʾ-l
Ask or request; Sha’ul means “asked for.”
Saul’s Hebrew name, Sha’ul (“asked for”), grows from the verb “ask.” The name keeps the origin of the kingship in view as the verse describes the kingdom that could have been made firm.
ALSO GROWS
sha’al: Ask or request.
שָׁאַל
This verb is the seed of the name Sha’ul, “asked for.”
she’elah: A request or question.
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of asking and seeking.
THE PATTERN
Instruction is preserved by being guarded, and what is guarded shapes the future.
And guard the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to guard his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his witnesses, as it is written in the instruction of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn your face.Grip the straightening; do not let it drop. Guard it, for it is your life.The one who holds my instructions and guards them is the one who loves me; the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself visible to him.THE THREAD
And showing faithful love to thousands of those who love me and guard my commandments.The same Hebrew verb translated “keep” and noun translated “commandments” appear together here, making the link lexical as well as thematic. Deuteronomy places guarded instruction beside love and faithful love, while Samuel names the kingdom lost when that guarding fails.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us