What Does 1 Samuel 15:5 Mean?
Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
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 Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.THE KEY
The verse places the asked-for king under cover: here, the waiting is already part of the violence.
THE MEANING
Violence is already taking shape before a blow lands: Saul is concealed in the valley, and the waiting is part of the attack. The verse holds you in the moment when concealment has given violence a position, though the strike is still ahead.
THE ROOT
שָׁאוּל
Sha'ul
GROWS FROM
שׁאל
to ask, request
Saul’s name carries the sense of “the asked-for one.” The requested king now waits under cover in the valley, placing the desire that called him forth beside the violence he is preparing.
ALSO GROWS
sha'al: to ask, request
שָׁאַל
The verb makes the root of Saul’s name visible: he is the one asked for.
she'elah: a request, petition
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun shows that Saul’s name belongs to the language of asking and desire.
THE PATTERN
Violence can be present before the blow, already taking shape through concealment and positioning.
Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.He sits in the ambush of the enclosures. In the hidden places he strikes down the clean-handed, and his eyes watch for the helpless."But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty men of them sit in wait for him, men who have bound themselves under a curse not to eat nor drink until they have lifted him out of the way. And now they stand ready, waiting for your word of promise."THE THREAD
And Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king.The word translated “asked” shares the root שאל with Saul’s name: he is the asked-for king. That link lets this valley scene carry the weight of what was desired, alongside the violence now being prepared.
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