What Does 1 Samuel 14:46 Mean?
Then Saul went up from behind the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their place.
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
Then Saul went up from following the Philistines: and the Philistines went to their own place.THE KEY
The pursuit ends when both sides withdraw, but the verse does not say that withdrawal brings reconciliation.
THE MEANING
The pursuit stops: Saul comes away from the Philistines, and they return to their own place. The encounter changes because neither side keeps pressing forward, though reconciliation remains unstated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A conflict stopping does not necessarily mean it is resolved; here, pursuit ends as each side withdraws.
THE ROOT
לִמְקוֹמָם
limqomam
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
To rise or stand; to take a position.
The Philistines return לִמְקוֹמָם (limqomam), “to their place,” a word formed from קום (qum), “to rise or stand.” Their movement ends in a return to position: the pursuit stops, but no reunion is described.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root beneath “place,” linking a location with the position where someone stands.
maqom: Place or position.
מָקוֹם
The Philistines return to their own position as the encounter’s forward movement ends.
heqim: Raise up or establish.
הֵקִים
The same root can describe establishing something in a position, extending the sense of standing into a settled state.
מֵאַחֲרֵי
me'acharei
GROWS FROM
אחר
achar
Behind or after; what comes later.
The Hebrew phrase מֵאַחֲרֵי (me’acharei) means “from after” or “from behind.” The root אחר (achar) also appears in words for what is later or last, so Saul’s departure ends his position behind the Philistines in pursuit.
ALSO GROWS
acharei: After or behind.
אַחֲרֵי
This is the wording behind “following”; Saul is no longer positioned after the Philistines.
acharon: Later or last.
אַחֲרוֹן
It carries the root’s sense of what comes after in sequence.
acharit: Latter end or outcome.
אַחֲרִית
The root can also point toward what follows or comes at the end, echoing the pursuit’s closure here.
THE PATTERN
When pursuit or confrontation reaches its limit, withdrawal can mark an ending without declaring reconciliation.
So Joab blew the ram's horn, and all the people stood, and no longer pursued after Israel, nor did they fight any more.And a voice went out through the camp at the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own land.And whoever will not receive you, when you go out from that city, shake out the very dust from your feet as a witness against them.THE THREAD
So Joab blew the ram's horn, and all the people stood, and no longer pursued after Israel, nor did they fight any more.This verse makes the cessation explicit: a trumpet ends the pursuit and the fighting. Beside Saul’s withdrawal, it sharpens the distinction between ending the pursuit and reconciling the opposing sides.
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