What Does 1 Samuel 14:2 Mean?
And Saul settled at the edge of Gibeah, under the pomegranate tree which is in Migron, and the people with him were about six hundred men.
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 Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men;THE KEY
The asked-for king is seated at the boundary, his Hebrew posture holding both sitting and dwelling on a hill whose name means hill.
THE MEANING
Saul sits at Gibeah’s far edge beneath a pomegranate tree, with six hundred men beside him. The Hebrew verb carries both sitting and dwelling, so his waiting has the shape of a place he occupies. You can be surrounded by many and still be positioned at the edge of what is unfolding.
THE ROOT
יֹשֵׁב
yoshev
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
sit, settle, dwell
The Hebrew verb pictures Saul sitting, while the same root also carries the sense of dwelling. The scene holds his bodily posture and his settled position together.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: sit, remain, dwell
יָשַׁב
The base verb holds posture and residence together; here it gives Saul a location, not only a duration.
moshav: seat, dwelling, settlement
מוֹשָׁב
This noun from the same root turns sitting and dwelling into a place, echoing the fixed position named in the verse.
שָׁאוּל
Sha’ul
GROWS FROM
שאל
sh-ʾ-l
ask, request
Saul’s name carries the sense of the one asked for. The name and his position sit side by side: the requested king is shown here at the edge, among a counted company.
ALSO GROWS
sha’al: ask, request
שָׁאַל
This verb carries the action embedded in Saul’s name.
she’elah: request, question
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun from the same root keeps the name connected to asking and requesting.
גִּבְעָה
giv’ah
GROWS FROM
גבע
g-b-ʿ
hill, mound
Gibeah means hill, so the verse places Saul at the edge of raised ground. The name gives the scene its contour before the people with him are counted.
ALSO GROWS
giv’ah: hill
גִּבְעָה
The place-name itself carries the shape of the terrain where Saul sits.
giv’on: Gibeon, a place-name from the same hill-bearing root
גִּבְעוֹן
The shared consonants carry the sense of elevated ground into another place-name.
THE PATTERN
A person’s posture and place can show how they are situated before an encounter or decision unfolds.
And the LORD was seen by him in the oaks of Mamre, and he settled in the tent opening in the heat of the day.Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, worn from the road, sat down on the well, and it was about the sixth hour.And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat beside the feet of Jesus, and heard his word.THE THREAD
And the LORD was seen by him in the oaks of Mamre, and he settled in the tent opening in the heat of the day.Both passages use יָשַׁב (yashav), a root that holds sitting and dwelling together. Abraham at the tent entrance and Saul at Gibeah’s edge are each seated at a threshold, with the surrounding scene still unfolding.
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