What Does 1 Samuel 14:31 Mean?
And they struck the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon, and the people were very spent.
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 they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon: and the people were very faint.THE KEY
The verse counts the ground the people win, then names the exhaustion it costs them.
THE MEANING
You can gain ground in a struggle and still be utterly spent; success does not erase the body’s cost. The verse holds the advance from Michmash to Aijalon beside the people’s exhaustion, making both real at once.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a successful outcome proves the effort left you untouched.
THE ROOT
וַיָּעַף
vayya'aph
GROWS FROM
עיף
ʿ-y-p
To be weary or faint.
“spent” in this verse is vayya'aph. The verb says the people become weary: their exhaustion is the result of the day’s advance, not a detail the verse hides. The same root can describe a person as faint, keeping the focus on a real human condition rather than a judgment about character.
ALSO GROWS
ayef: Weary, faint; adjective.
עָיֵף
Isaiah uses this form for the faint, making visible the person who has reached this depleted state.
ayefah: Weary, faint; feminine form.
עֲיֵפָה
The same root describes weariness across grammatical forms, naming depletion as a condition rather than a personal failing.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats weariness as consequential: it can leave people vulnerable, and it makes strength or rest matter.
I will come upon him while he is weary and his hands have dropped, and I will make him tremble; all the people who are with him will flee, and I will strike down the king alone.He gives power to the faint, and to those without might he multiplies strength.Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.THE THREAD
How he met you on the road, and struck down the rear of you, all who lagged behind you, when you were spent and worn; and he had no awe of God.The verb for the people becoming faint here comes from עיף (ʿ-y-p), the same root behind “faint” in Deuteronomy. There, the faint are left behind and attacked; here, the exhausted are the ones who have pressed forward. The shared root makes bodily depletion visible in both exposure and victory.
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