What Does 1 Samuel 2:26 Mean?
And the child Samuel walked and grew, and was good both with the LORD and also with men.
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 the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls Samuel’s “favour” goodness: his growth is recognized as good in his relation to both the LORD and people.
THE MEANING
The verse shows growth becoming visible as goodness in your relation to God and to other people. Samuel’s name is linked in his birth story to Hannah asking for him of the LORD, so the line holds a life received and a life growing in favor together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that regard from people must come at the expense of regard from God: here the two appear together.
THE ROOT
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
ט־ו־ב
Good, pleasant, or pleasing; here, goodness that makes a person favorable in relationship.
English “favor” can sound like status granted from outside; the Hebrew word is tov, “good” or “pleasing.” Samuel’s favor therefore carries the texture of goodness in both relationships, rather than two separate rewards.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good, pleasant, fitting
טוֹב
This is the word translated “favour” here, so the English sense of regard retains the Hebrew texture of goodness.
tuv: Goodness, bounty
טוּב
This noun can name goodness received, letting the same root describe more than a favorable opinion.
tovah: Goodness, welfare, a good thing
טוֹבָה
This form names goodness as a condition, illuminating favor as a positive state of relationship.
גָּדֵל
gadel
GROWS FROM
ג־ד־ל
To grow, become great, or increase.
“grew” in this verse is gadel. The Hebrew expression places continuing “going” beside “growing,” presenting growth as movement over time. This root also gives words for greatness and a tower: what grows is raised into view.
ALSO GROWS
gadal: Grow, become great
גָּדַל
The verb names the ongoing increase described in Samuel’s life.
gadol: Great, large
גָּדוֹל
The same root shows growth opening toward greatness.
migdal: Tower
מִגְדָּל
A tower is something raised up; the branch gives growth a visible, elevated form.
שְׁמוּאֵל
Shemu’el
GROWS FROM
ש־א־ל
To ask or request. Samuel’s birth story connects his name with Hannah asking the LORD for him.
“Samuel’s name, linked to “asked”” in this verse is Shemu’el. Samuel’s name is narrated through Hannah’s asking: he is the child she asked of the LORD. His growth here carries that beginning forward, a life received, then seen growing in favor.
ALSO GROWS
sha’al: Ask, request
שָׁאַל
This is the verb behind Hannah’s explanation of Samuel’s name in 1 Samuel 1:20.
she’elah: Request, question
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun keeps the same root in the form of a spoken request, echoing the story of Samuel’s beginning.
THE PATTERN
Growth becomes visible as goodness recognized in relationship with God and with other people.
So you find favor and good insight in the eyes of God and of humankind.And Jesus cut his way forward in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and humankind.Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the assembly each day those who were being delivered.THE THREAD
And Jesus cut his way forward in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and humankind.Luke uses nearly the same structure as Samuel: growth followed by favor with God and people. The echo lets Samuel’s line open onto a recurring picture of a life that grows and is recognized in both relationships.
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