What Does 1 Samuel 2:7 Mean?
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.
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
The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “maketh poor” also means “inherit”: the same root holds dispossession and possession together.
THE MEANING
The place you occupy now is within the LORD’s reach: this verse names poverty and riches, being brought low and lifted up, as movements under his hand. Your present condition is not a permanent verdict or the measure of your worth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that your current position is permanent or wholly self-made.
THE ROOT
מוֹרִישׁ
môrîsh
GROWS FROM
ירש
To possess or take as an inheritance; in a causative form, to dispossess.
“strips” in this verse is môrîsh. The verb translated “maketh poor” is a causative form of a root that also names possessing or inheriting. The language holds being stripped of possessions and receiving an inheritance in one root family.
ALSO GROWS
yārash: To possess, inherit, or take possession.
יָרַשׁ
In Genesis 15:4, a form of this root describes the promised heir, showing the root on the receiving side of possession.
hôrîsh: To dispossess or drive out; in this verse, to make poor.
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative form describes making another lose possession, giving the verse’s poverty a shade of dispossession.
THE PATTERN
Human standing and resources remain movable under the LORD’s hand: he brings people low and lifts them up.
For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.He raises the bowed one from the dust, and lifts the one in want from the ash heap;THE THREAD
And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, This one will not be your heir, but the one who comes forth from your own body will be your heir.The Hebrew verb behind “maketh poor” comes from ירש, a root that also means to possess or inherit. Genesis uses that root for the promised heir, placing dispossession and inheritance in the same word-family.
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