What Does 1 Samuel 14:38 Mean?
And Saul said, Draw near here, all the cornerstones of the people, and perceive and see where this shortcoming has been this 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 said, Draw ye near hither, all the chief of the people: and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day.THE KEY
The people’s chiefs are called their “corners,” and Saul gathers those structural points to find where the day’s missing occurred.
THE MEANING
You are inside an inquiry that calls the community’s corner-points near and asks them to know and see where the day’s missing has occurred. The word rendered “sin” also carries the image of a mark missed, making the failure something to locate and perceive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a wrong within a community is too vague to locate dissolves here: Saul asks where the missing has taken place today.
THE ROOT
הַחַטָּאת
ha-ḥaṭṭā’t
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss or err.
“shortcoming” in this verse is ha-ḥaṭṭā’t. The word translated “sin” also lets you hear “the missing”, something that can be located “wherein” it has been, today. The root gives the verse a concrete image of a mark missed, alongside the familiar sense of sin.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or err.
חָטָא
The verb makes the root’s image of missing an action, illuminating Saul’s question about where it has occurred.
chatta’t: Missing or sin; in ritual contexts, an offering associated with the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root connects the failure named here with the offering vocabulary used for what is missing.
פִּנּוֹת
pinnoth
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
To turn or face; the word family also carries the image of a corner.
“cornerstones” in this verse is pinnoth. The Hebrew word rendered “chiefs” is pinnoth, literally “corners.” It gives the leaders a structural image: the points where the people’s whole takes shape and turns toward what needs to be seen.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face or presence.
פָּנִים
The face belongs to the same word family’s image of turning toward something.
pinnah: Corner; a structural or prominent point.
פִּנָּה
This is the singular form behind the verse’s picture of the people’s “corners” as their chiefs.
דְעוּ
de’u
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know or recognize.
Saul pairs “know” with “see.” Yada carries knowing as recognition, so the inquiry calls for the people to perceive and recognize where the missing is situated.
ALSO GROWS
da’at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun carries the same root from knowing into what is recognized or understood.
moda: An acquaintance or kinsman; someone known.
מוֹדָע
This branch shows the root’s reach into personal recognition, not information alone.
THE PATTERN
A hidden miss becomes visible when the whole turns toward locating it.
Probe me, O God, and perceive my heart; test me, and perceive my burning thoughts.Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.THE THREAD
I store your word in my heart, so that I do not miss the mark against you.Psalm 119:11 uses the same חטא root in “sin”: Saul asks where the missing has occurred today, while the psalm names a word held in the heart as a way of not missing against God. The shared root gives both verses the concrete image of a mark missed or not missed.
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