What Does 1 Samuel 15:1 Mean?
Samuel also said to Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over his people Israel; now then, hear and respond to the voice of the words of the LORD.
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
Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.THE KEY
The king’s authority is received through anointing, yet it remains answerable to the voice that sends him.
THE MEANING
Where you hold responsibility, this verse places it beneath the voice that commissions it. Samuel is sent to anoint Saul, and Saul is told to hear the LORD’s words in a way that calls for response. Authority here is received and accountable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being entrusted with authority means I can act on my own terms.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַע
shemaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
š-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, attend; in context, hear responsively.
“hear and respond to” in this verse is shemaʿ. The Hebrew verb can carry more than receiving sound: it can mean listening with a response. The command is to let the LORD’s words reach beyond the ear and govern Saul’s answer.
ALSO GROWS
shōmēaʿ: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The word turns hearing into a description of the person receiving the voice.
shemuʿah: News or a report, something heard.
שְׁמֻעָה
The same root names both the act of hearing and what arrives through hearing.
מָשַׁח
māšaḥ
GROWS FROM
משח
m-š-ḥ
Smear or apply oil; anoint.
“anoint you” in this verse is māšaḥ. The verb that marks Saul with oil shares its root with the title for the anointed one. The role is conferred on him, and the verse immediately places that received role under a command to hear.
ALSO GROWS
māšîaḥ: One who has been anointed.
מָשִׁיחַ
The title grows from the same root as the act performed on Saul.
mišḥāh: Anointing or anointing oil.
מִשְׁחָה
The oil belongs to the same word-family as the act that marks Saul for kingship.
שָׁלַח
šālaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
Send, send forth, release, let go.
Samuel’s authority begins with being sent; the message is entrusted to him, not made his own. This root also holds the sense of releasing or sending forth, so the commission moves outward from the LORD through Samuel to Saul.
ALSO GROWS
šillûaḥ: A sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch shows the root’s reach from dispatching someone to releasing them.
Shiloah: The name of a water-channel; the related name Siloam is interpreted as Sent in John 9:7.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the root’s sense of being sent forth.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, hearing reaches its purpose when it becomes responsive action.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.The same root שמע (š-m-ʿ, hear and respond) appears in the opening command to hearken and again in the word hearken here. The later verse sharpens the first: hearing the LORD’s voice is measured by the response, not by the offering.
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