What Does 1 Samuel 18:6 Mean?
And it came to pass as they came, when David returned from striking the Philistine, that the women went out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with hand drums, with joy, and with instruments of music.
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 it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.THE KEY
Women from every city carry joy into the king’s presence, making celebration itself an act of public recognition.
THE MEANING
Joy takes a public body: women from every city come with song, rhythm, and movement. Shared recognition reaches the people through what they do together, and the verse speaks now wherever joy becomes audible and visible in community.
THE ROOT
וַתֵּצֶאנָה
vattetse’na
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, come forth, or emerge.
“came out” in this verse is vattetse’na. The verb places the women in motion from all the cities into public view. A related noun can mean an outlet or going forth, so the scene makes celebration itself something that emerges and enters the encounter.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go or come out.
יָצָא
This is the verb behind the women’s movement from the cities to meet the king.
motsa: A going forth, outlet, or point of emergence.
מוֹצָא
This related form echoes the scene’s movement from a place of origin into public space.
מְחֹלוֹת
meḥolot
GROWS FROM
חול
To whirl or twist; in related forms, to writhe or travail.
“dancing” in this verse is meḥolot. The dance word grows from a root of bodily turning and motion. Celebration here is not just an idea attached to victory; it takes shape through the moving body.
ALSO GROWS
machol: A dance.
מָחוֹל
This is the related Hebrew word for dance, also used in Psalm 149:3.
ḥolēl: To writhe or travail; to bring forth in a related verbal form.
חוֹלֵל
Its bodily sense shows the physical movement held within the dance word’s root.
דָּוִד
Dawid
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; love or endearment.
David’s name carries the nature of the beloved. His victory draws a response across the cities, so the name’s relational sense sits within a scene of shared recognition and delight.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also a kinsman or uncle.
דּוֹד
This is the name-root’s sense of one who is loved.
dodim: Love or endearments.
דּוֹדִים
This related form extends the root from the beloved person to the affection between people.
THE PATTERN
When deliverance is shared, it emerges as embodied, public celebration.
And Miriam the prophet, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out behind her with timbrels and with dances.Let them praise his nature in the whirling; let them make music to him with the hand-drum and the harp.Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard harmony and dancing.THE THREAD
And Miriam the prophet, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out behind her with timbrels and with dances.In both verses, women come out with the same Hebrew verb, יצא (yatsa), and meet the moment with timbrels and dance. The repeated movement from the cities or the people into public celebration links the two scenes through their shared root.
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