What Does 1 Samuel 20:14 Mean?
And you shall not only, while I yet live, do the faithful love of the LORD to me, that I do not die.
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 thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the LORD, that I die not:THE KEY
The “kindness” Jonathan asks for is chesed, faithful love sturdy enough to become another person’s protection.
THE MEANING
This verse sees your vulnerability held within a bond of faithful love, expressed through another person’s loyal action. Life is at stake in the request; chesed here is care with the strength to endure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that care lasts only while it is easy or advantageous: here, loyal love reaches into another person’s danger.
THE ROOT
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
ḥ-s-d
Loyal, steadfast care expressed through action.
“Kindness” can sound like a passing courtesy, while chesed carries the weight of faithful love. Jonathan’s request makes that love concrete: it is care enacted where life is at stake.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsad: To show loyal kindness through action.
חָסַד
This verbal form makes chesed something enacted; the request is for love to be shown, not merely felt.
ḥāsîd: One characterized by steadfast devotion.
חָסִיד
The related word links the care being requested with the character of the person who gives it.
THE PATTERN
Faithful love becomes a durable bond when it acts for someone whose safety depends on another’s care.
And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, turn back each to her mother's house. May the LORD do faithful love with you, as you have done with the dead and with me.O extend your hands in thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his faithful love reaches to the ages.And he said, The one who showed faithful love to him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.THE THREAD
But also, you shall not cut off your faithful love from my house for the ages, no, not when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the ground.The same Hebrew word, chesed, appears again: the requested faithful love reaches beyond Jonathan to his household. The next verse says the bond endures even after the danger has passed.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us