What Does 1 Samuel 15:30 Mean?
Then Saul said, I have missed the mark. Yet give me weight now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and turn back with me, that I may bow down to the LORD your God.
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 he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.THE KEY
The verse sets a plea for public weight beside a vow to bow before God, exposing two audiences for honor in one sentence.
THE MEANING
You can admit a failure and still want public standing. This verse holds the plea for honor before the elders and Israel beside the language of bowing before the LORD. Neither posture automatically cancels the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that admitting fault by itself loosens the desire for recognition; the plea still asks for public honor.
THE ROOT
כַּבְּדֵנִי
kabbedeni
GROWS FROM
כבד
Be heavy; carry weight.
“give me weight” in this verse is kabbedeni. The request is not merely to be treated politely; the verb carries the sense of being given weight before the community. The verse places that request beside bowing before the LORD, keeping public regard and worship distinct in the same sentence.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy.
כָּבֵד
The root’s sense of weight sits beneath the request to be honored before the people.
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
This branch shows that honor carries the idea of weight or significance, not just approval.
וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֵיתִי
ve-hishtachaveti
GROWS FROM
שחה
Bow low; prostrate oneself.
“bow down” in this verse is ve-hishtachaveti. The word rendered “worship” names a bodily posture: bowing down. That concrete posture stands beside the request to be given weight in public, making the verse’s two directions visible.
ALSO GROWS
hishtachavah: Bow oneself down; prostrate oneself.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This verb form carries the same physical posture named by “worship” in the verse.
mishtachaveh: One who bows down.
מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
The related form makes the root’s bodily action explicit: worship is expressed as bowing.
חָטָאתִי
chatati
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss; fail to reach what is aimed at.
“missed the mark” in this verse is chatati. The confession names a miss, and the plea that follows still seeks public honor. The root keeps the missed mark in view while the surrounding words reveal that concern for reputation can remain present.
ALSO GROWS
chet: A missing; an offense.
חֵטְא
This noun preserves the root’s sense of a miss beneath the confession.
chote: One who misses; one who errs.
חֹטֵא
This related form describes the person in terms of missing, rather than reducing the word to a label.
THE PATTERN
Religious language and public honor can coexist, exposing whose regard is being sought.
Saul said to Samuel, I have missed the mark, for I have crossed over the mouth of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and heard and responded to their voice.Take heed not to do your alignment before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.For they loved the weight from humankind more than the weight of God.THE THREAD
Therefore the LORD God of Israel says, I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before me for the ages. But now the LORD says, Far be it from me. For those who give me weight, I will give weight; those who make light of me shall be made light.The same Hebrew root כבד (k-b-d), “be heavy; carry weight,” appears in both verses: here the plea is “honour me,” and there the LORD says, “them that honour me I will honour.” The shared root shifts attention to whose regard is being treated as weight.
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