What Does 1 Samuel 14:37 Mean?
And Saul asked of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel? But he did not answer him that day.
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 asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he answered him not that day.THE KEY
The Hebrew name Sha’ul shares its root with “asked”: the one named “Asked For” asks, and no answer comes that day.
THE MEANING
You can bring a real question to God and still receive no answer within the day. The silence leaves the outcome open; it voices neither permission nor refusal. The name Sha’ul echoes the act of asking, so the verse holds the question itself in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that asking guarantees an immediate answer is undone here: the question is asked, and no answer comes that day.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁאַל
vayish'al
GROWS FROM
שאל
To ask or request.
“asked of God” in this verse is vayish'al. The Hebrew places the verb for “asked” beside Sha’ul, whose name comes from the same root and carries the sense “asked for.” Asking is doubled in the line: it is what Saul does and what his name says.
ALSO GROWS
Sha'ul: Saul; “asked for” or “requested.”
שָׁאוּל
His name repeats the root of the verb “asked,” giving the question an echo English does not show.
she'elah: A request or petition.
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun makes explicit the request already present in Saul’s act of asking.
הֲתִתְּנֵם
hatittenem
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew question literally asks whether God will give the Philistines into Israel’s hand. “Deliver” here carries the concrete image of being given or placed into someone’s grasp.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
The gift noun grows from the same giving root, showing the root’s movement from the act of giving to what is given.
Netan'el: Nethanel; “God has given.”
נְתַנְאֵל
This name carries the same נתן root, making visible the giving that Saul asks about.
THE PATTERN
A question can remain unanswered for a time, leaving silence distinct from either a yes or a no.
O LORD, how long shall I cry out, and you will not hear and respond? I cry out to you of violence, and you will not deliver.And will God not set his own chosen straight, the ones who cry out to him day and night, though he is slow to heat with them?THE THREAD
One thing I ask of the LORD, this I will seek; that I may settle in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the sweetness of the LORD, and to search out in his temple.The Hebrew word translated “desired” comes from the same שאל root as “asked” in Saul’s question. The shared root connects a request for a particular outcome with a desire that turns toward dwelling near the LORD.
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