What Does 1 Samuel 15:35 Mean?

And Samuel did not come again to see Saul until the day of his death, but Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD relented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

1 Samuel 15:35 · 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

And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb behind “repented” also means “was comforted,” placing the LORD’s regret within a root that holds grief and consolation together.

THE MEANING

Distance does not erase grief: Samuel no longer sees Saul, yet he mourns him. The LORD’s regret over making Saul king names grief over the choice itself. The verse holds separation and sorrow together in the reader’s present.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that distance means grief is over.

THE ROOT

וַיִּנָּחֵם

vayyinnāḥēm

GROWS FROM

נחם

n-ḥ-m

To comfort or console; in this verb family, also to regret or relent.

“relented” in this verse is vayyinnāḥēm. The root ⁨נָחַם⁩ (nāḥam, comfort or regret) holds grief and consolation within one word family. Here ⁨וַיִּנָּחֵם⁩ (vayyinnāḥēm, regretted) names the LORD’s response to Saul’s kingship, beside Samuel’s explicit mourning.

ALSO GROWS

vayyinnāḥēm: Was comforted

וַיִּנָּחֵם

Genesis 24:67 uses this same verb form for Isaac after his mother’s death, placing comfort within the root that carries regret here.

niḥam: Regret or relent

נִחַם

This is the root’s relenting sense, as when the LORD relents from a declared course in Exodus 32:14.

וַיִּתְאַבֵּל

vayyitʾabbēl

GROWS FROM

אבל

ʾ-b-l

To mourn or lament.

“mourned” in this verse is vayyitʾabbēl. This root makes Samuel’s response unmistakably grief. Set beside ⁨נָחַם⁩ (nāḥam, comfort or regret), it lets the verse hold Samuel’s mourning and the LORD’s regret together in different words.

ALSO GROWS

ʾēvel: Mourning

אֵבֶל

The noun names the grief carried by Samuel’s verb of mourning.

ʾāvēl: Mourner

אָבֵל

This related form names the one who mourns, keeping the focus on the person bearing the grief.

THE PATTERN

The Hebrew root ⁨נָחַם⁩ (nāḥam, comfort or regret) joins grief over what has become grievous with a response that can change.

And the LORD relented of having made humankind upon the earth, and it pained him at his heart.

Genesis 6:6 · SDVThe same root expresses regret alongside grief at the heart, giving divine sorrow a clear place in the language.

And the LORD relented from the harm he had spoken of doing to his people.

Exodus 32:14 · SDVHere the root carries the sense of relenting, joining grief to a changed course.

And God saw their deeds, because they turned back from their harmful way; and God relented from the harm he had spoken to do to them, and he did not do it.

Jonah 3:10 · SDVThe same root describes God’s response after the people turn, linking their changed course with a relenting response.

THE THREAD

And also the Enduring One of Israel will not lie, nor relent, for he is not a man, that he should relent.

1 Samuel 15:29 · SDV

This verse uses the same root ⁨נָחַם⁩ (nāḥam, regret or relent) in the claim that the Strength of Israel will not “repent,” while 1 Samuel 15:35 says the LORD “repented.” The text holds both a steadfast declaration about Saul and grief over Saul’s kingship in the same chapter.

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