What Does 1 Samuel 14:42 Mean?
And Saul said, Let the lots fall between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was seized.
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, Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken.THE KEY
The lot does not merely name Jonathan; the Hebrew says it catches him.
THE MEANING
Here, uncertainty narrows to Saul and Jonathan, and the lot catches one: Jonathan. The verse gives selection the feel of capture, placing a person inside a decision before its reason is visible.
THE ROOT
וַיִּלָּכֵד
vayillaked
GROWS FROM
לכד
To catch, capture, or seize.
“was seized” in this verse is vayillaked. The verb comes from lakad, meaning to catch or capture: Jonathan is not merely identified but caught by the lot’s outcome. The same root describes taking a stronghold and Saul himself being taken by lot, so selection carries the weight of capture.
ALSO GROWS
vayilkod: He captured or took.
וַיִּלְכֹּד
In 2 Samuel 5:7, David captures the stronghold of Zion; the active form shows the root’s force in taking hold of something.
vayillaked: He was taken or caught.
וַיִּלָּכֵד
In 1 Samuel 10:21, Saul is taken by lot with this same form, echoing Jonathan’s selection here.
THE PATTERN
A lot can single out a person from uncertainty before the full meaning of that selection is clear.
When he had made the tribe of Benjamin draw near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken. And when they sought him, he could not be found.And they said each to his fellow, Come, let us make the lots fall, so that we may know on whose account this evil is upon us. So they made the lots fall, and the lot fell upon Jonah.And they cast their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven sent ones.THE THREAD
When he had made the tribe of Benjamin draw near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken. And when they sought him, he could not be found.The earlier lot names Saul with the same verb used here of Jonathan: in both verses, the chosen person is taken. That echo makes the selection feel like capture, not simply identification.
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