What Does 1 Samuel 19:20 Mean?
And Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the cord of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing appointed over them, the breath of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
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 sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.THE KEY
God’s ruach (רוּחַ, breath/wind) reaches the men sent to seize David, the beloved (דָּוִד, David), and their mouths become prophetic.
THE MEANING
God’s breath can meet you inside an assigned role and turn your voice toward prophecy. The messengers are sent to take David, yet the same moment holds the breath of God resting upon them and their prophesying.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that your assignment tells the whole truth about you: the messengers carry a command to take David, and under God’s breath they also prophesy.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ח
r-w-ḥ
Breath, wind, moving air; also spirit.
The KJV’s “Spirit” is ruach, the same Hebrew word for wind and breath. Here God’s ruach comes upon the messengers and prophecy follows, holding divine presence and spoken breath together.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind: moving air.
רוּחַ
The same word translated “Spirit” also names wind, giving God’s presence the sense of movement through open air.
ruach: Breath: air moving in a living body.
רוּחַ
This shade joins the breath of life to the prophetic speech that comes from the messengers.
וַיִּתְנַבְּאוּ
vayyitnabbe’u
GROWS FROM
נ־ב־א
n-b-ʾ
Prophesy; speak as a prophet.
“Prophets” and “prophesied” belong to the same Hebrew root-family. The messengers who watch the prophetic company are drawn into its own kind of speech.
ALSO GROWS
navi: A prophet; one who prophesies.
נָבִיא
The company the messengers see is named with the same root-family as the act they enter.
nevu’ah: Prophecy; prophetic speech.
נְבוּאָה
This noun names the kind of speech the root’s verb describes, joining the company of prophets to the messengers’ utterance.
שָׁלַח
shalach
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth, release, stretch out.
Saul sends the messengers with a purpose, but the verse shows what happens after they leave his hand. The root’s sense of sending forth also branches into provision extended and waters sent out.
ALSO GROWS
shulchan: A table; provision set out.
שֻׁלְחָן
This branch carries the root’s sense of extension into a table where provision is spread out.
Shiloach: Shiloach; the sent waters or channel.
שִׁלֹחַ
The root also names waters sent forth; this branch connects sending with the flowing waters associated with restored sight.
THE PATTERN
When God’s breath rests upon people, it becomes speech through them.
And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spoke with him, and took from the breath that was upon him and set it upon the seventy elders. And when the breath settled upon them, they prophesied and did not stop.And they were all filled with the Set-Apart Breath, and began to speak in other tongues, as the breath gave them to speak out.THE THREAD
And when they came there to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him, and the breath of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them.The same Hebrew word, רוּחַ (ruach, breath/wind), appears when God’s Spirit comes upon Saul and he prophesies among a company of prophets. That shared root places Saul’s messengers inside the same breath-and-prophecy pattern as their king.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us