What Does 1 Samuel 17:51 Mean?
Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and stripped it from its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their mighty one was dead, they fled.
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
Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.THE KEY
The Philistine’s own sword turns his visible strength into the sign that the army’s fear has lost its center.
THE MEANING
Goliath’s own sword becomes the means of his death, and the force the Philistines gather around becomes the signal for their flight. When their champion falls, the figure who embodied their strength is dead, and the whole army runs.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The strongest champion can guarantee the safety of everyone who stands behind him.
THE ROOT
גִּבּוֹרָם
gibbōrām
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong; to prevail.
“Champion” is גִּבּוֹר (gibbōr), a mighty man, from the root of being strong or prevailing. The Philistines’ strength has a visible bearer, and when he falls, their confidence breaks into flight.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: Be strong; prevail.
גָּבַר
This verb makes the root’s sense of prevailing audible beneath the title “champion.”
gevurah: Might; strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This related noun names the force embodied by their champion, which no longer holds the Philistines together once he is dead.
וַיִּכְרָת
wayyikhrat
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
To cut; cut off; sever.
The root behind “cut off” also appears in the phrase “cut a covenant,” and in a word for severance. The same root can name binding or separation; here the severing is literal, as David cuts off the Philistine’s head.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: Cut a covenant; make a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb used for cutting off the head also appears in the Hebrew phrase for making a covenant, where “covenant” means a binding agreement.
keritut: Severance; a document of divorce.
כְּרִיתוּת
This related word keeps the root’s sense of cutting apart, clarifying the force of “cut off” in the verse.
דָּוִד
Dawid
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; the word can also mean a beloved one or uncle.
The name David shares its consonants with דּוֹד (dod), “beloved.” That meaning sits beneath the English personal name alongside the Philistines’ title of might, without softening what David does in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved one; also uncle.
דּוֹד
This word carries the belovedness associated with David’s name.
dodim: Loves; caresses.
דּוֹדִים
This related form extends the same consonants into language of love and affection.
THE PATTERN
A visible champion cannot guarantee the safety of the people who gather their confidence around him.
No king is delivered by the multitude of an army; a mighty one is not snatched free by much strength.But God picked out the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God picked out the weak things of the world to shame the strong.THE THREAD
No king is delivered by the multitude of an army; a mighty one is not snatched free by much strength.The Hebrew for “mighty man,” גִּבּוֹר (gibbōr), comes from the same root גבר (g-b-r), “be strong, prevail,” as the Philistines’ “champion.” Psalm 33:16 states what this scene shows: strength by itself cannot deliver the one who bears it.
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