What Does 1 Samuel 15:26 Mean?
Samuel said to Saul, I will not turn back with you, for you have cast off the word of the LORD, and the LORD has cast you off from being king over Israel.
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 Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root turns the sentence into a mirror: Saul rejects the LORD’s word, and the LORD rejects Saul from the kingship.
THE MEANING
A place entrusted by the LORD is not separable from the word that gives it its charge. Saul rejects that word, and the LORD rejects his claim to kingship; the verse holds the two acts together as a direct consequence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that once a role is granted, its holder can reject the word governing it and still keep the role unchanged.
THE ROOT
מָאַס
maʾas
GROWS FROM
מאס
Reject, refuse, or regard as worthless.
“cast off” in this verse is maʾas. The Hebrew repeats the same root for Saul’s rejection of the LORD’s word and the LORD’s rejection of Saul. That repeated seed makes the loss of kingship answer the refusal that precedes it.
ALSO GROWS
maʾasu: they rejected
מָאֲסוּ
In Psalm 118:22, the builders use this form when they reject the stone; it is the same root behind Saul’s act.
nimas: rejected, held in contempt
נִמְאָס
This passive form in Psalm 15:4 describes someone treated as contemptible, showing the root can name the state left by rejection.
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; as a noun, speech, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew word translated “word” can also mean a matter or thing. The verse therefore presents Saul’s refusal as reaching beyond speech to the matter the LORD’s word carries.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: he spoke, uttered
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the same root consonants, linking the spoken word to the act of speaking.
devarim: words, matters, things
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the noun’s range: words can also be matters or things, illuminating what Saul refuses.
THE PATTERN
Refusing the LORD’s counsel places the very role or standing it governs at risk.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge, and I will reject you, so that you shall be no priest to me. Since you have forgotten the instruction of your God, I will also forget your children.But the separated ones and the experts in instruction set aside the counsel of God against themselves, not having been immersed by him.THE THREAD
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.The builders’ “refused” uses the same Hebrew root, מאס (maʾas), that marks both refusals in Samuel. There, the LORD’s rejection removes Saul from kingship; here, the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone, showing that the root names rejection while the surrounding verse reveals its outcome.
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