What Does 1 Samuel 14:4 Mean?
Between the crossings by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the standing post of the Philistines, there was a tooth of rock on the one side, and a tooth of rock on the other side, and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.
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 between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.THE KEY
Hebrew uses one crossing-root for both the passages and Jonathan’s going over, making the route and the act two faces of the same movement.
THE MEANING
You see a crossing before it is completed: two tooth-like rocks mark its edges. One is Bozez (בּוֹצֵץ, bōṣēṣ, “shining” or “glistening”); the other is Seneh (סֶנֶּה, seneh, “thornbush”). The passage holds movement and danger in the same frame, without making either disappear.
THE ROOT
מַעֲבָרוֹת
ma'avarot
GROWS FROM
עבר
Cross over, pass through, move to the other side.
“crossings” in this verse is ma'avarot. The Hebrew word for the passages and the verb for Jonathan going over share the root עבר. English separates the place from the action, while Hebrew joins them as one crossing.
ALSO GROWS
ma'avar: Passage, crossing, or ford
מַעֲבָר
It names a place by the crossing it makes possible.
ever: Beyond, across, or the other side
עֵבֶר
The far side, too, belongs to the same crossing-root.
שֵׁן הַסֶּלַע
shen ha-sela
GROWS FROM
שנן
Sharpen or whet; the related noun שֵׁן names a tooth, its pointed edge.
“tooth of rock” in this verse is shen ha-sela. The Hebrew image beneath “sharp rock” is “tooth of the cliff.” That tooth-image shares a root with sharpening, so the crossing is framed by edges that cut.
ALSO GROWS
shen: Tooth
שֵׁן
This is the word used for each pointed rock edge in the verse.
shinnantam: Sharpen them; rendered “teach them diligently” in Deuteronomy 6:7
שִׁנַּנְתָּם
The sharpening image also describes words impressed deeply, extending the root beyond a physical edge.
THE PATTERN
Movement to the other side takes shape as passage through a real boundary.
And the priests who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood steady on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing over Jordan.When you cross through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon you.And that day, when evening had come, he said to them, Let us pass through to the other side.THE THREAD
When you cross through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon you.The word translated “passest” is עָבַר (avar, “cross over”), the same root behind both “passages” and “go over” in this verse. Isaiah carries that crossing-root into the reader’s passage through water and fire: the boundary is named, and movement through it remains possible.
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