What Does 1 Samuel 15:10 Mean?

Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying,

1 Samuel 15:10 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,

THE KEY

Hebrew *davar* can mean both “word” and “matter,” so the LORD’s speech arrives not just as information but as an event.

THE MEANING

The LORD’s word comes to Samuel before its content is disclosed. As you read, the sentence holds you at the threshold of what is about to be said.

THE ROOT

דְּבַר

devar

GROWS FROM

דָּבַר

d-b-r

To speak; *davar* can also mean a matter or affair.

In this verse, the word comes as an arrival. Hebrew holds speech and matter together in *davar*, letting the LORD’s utterance register as something happening, not only as information being delivered.

ALSO GROWS

dibber: He spoke.

דִּבֵּר

This verbal form shows the root as speech in action: the word that comes is something uttered.

devarim: Words; matters or things.

דְּבָרִים

The plural preserves the link between what is spoken and the matter it concerns.

וַיְהִי

vayhi

GROWS FROM

הָיָה

h-y-h

To be, become, or happen.

The Hebrew opening uses a form of *hayah*, “to be” or “to happen,” which the KJV renders as “came.” The arrival of the word is presented as an event unfolding in the scene.

ALSO GROWS

hayah: Was; became; happened.

הָיָה

This form reveals the underlying sense of the verse’s opening: something comes to be.

yihyeh: Will be; will become.

יִהְיֶה

This related form carries the same root’s movement into what is yet to come.

THE PATTERN

The word of the LORD arrives as an event of address before its message is unfolded.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.

Genesis 15:1 · SDVThe LORD’s word comes to Abram before its message unfolds in the reassurance that follows.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jeremiah 1:4 · SDVThe word arrives as address, opening a moment of speech before its content is given.

While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

Luke 3:2 · SDVThe verse presents God’s word as something that comes to a hearer in a specific moment.

THE THREAD

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.

Genesis 15:1 · SDV

Both verses use *devar YHWH* for the LORD’s word as it comes to someone. Here the sentence leaves that word suspended; Genesis shows its arrival opening into a message of reassurance.

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