What Does 1 Samuel 2:5 Mean?
Those who are full hire themselves out for bread, and the hungry stop until the barren one bears seven; and she who has many children withers.
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
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.THE KEY
The Hebrew words for “full” and “seven” share the same three written letters, making fullness echo inside the barren woman’s sevenfold birth.
THE MEANING
Your present condition is not a verdict: hunger can cease, and what is barren can bear seven. The reversal reaches every side; those once full can work for bread, and a woman with many children can become weak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that present lack or abundance proves what the future must be.
THE ROOT
שְׂבֵעִים
seveʿim
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
ś-b-ʿ
to be sated or full
In the unpointed text, “full” (שְׂבֵעִים, seveʿim) and “seven” (שִׁבְעָה, shivʿāh) share the written letters שבע, though the s/sh distinction marks separate words, not one proven root. That spelling echo places fullness beside sevenfold birth as the verse turns fullness into need and barrenness into abundance.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: sated, full
שָׂבֵעַ
It shows the same root describing a state of being filled.
śōvaʿ: satiety, fullness
שֹׂבַע
The state of being full also has a noun form, echoing the verse’s opening condition.
עֲקָרָה
ʿăqārāh
GROWS FROM
עקר
ʿ-q-r
to uproot; in this word family, to be barren
“barren one” in this verse is ʿăqārāh. The Hebrew for “barren” belongs to a root also used for uprooting. Here that condition bears children, so the word’s image of being uprooted does not get the final word.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāqār: barren
עָקָר
This masculine form shares the root of the verse’s word for the barren woman.
ʿāqar: to uproot, pull up by the roots
עָקַר
This branch reveals the root image beneath the word for barrenness.
רְעֵבִים
reʿēvīm
GROWS FROM
רעב
r-ʿ-b
to hunger; to be hungry
The same root names a person’s hunger and famine at a wider scale. Here the hungry cease: the need named by the root is a condition that can end.
ALSO GROWS
rāʿēv: hungry
רָעֵב
This singular form shares the root of the verse’s hungry people.
rāʿāv: famine
רָעָב
The root’s reach extends from personal hunger to widespread lack.
THE PATTERN
Conditions called full, hungry, barren, and abundant can all be reversed; none alone determines what comes next.
He settles the uprooted woman in the house, a glad mother of children. Praise the LORD.He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.THE THREAD
For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living soul with goodness.“Hungry” in both verses comes from the Hebrew root רעב (r-ʿ-b), meaning to hunger. Psalm 107 names the filling that 1 Samuel compresses into the hungry ceasing.
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