What Does 1 Samuel 20:15 Mean?
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.
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
But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb describes cutting off David’s enemies and the severance Jonathan asks David never to bring upon his house.
THE MEANING
You see two fates held side by side: David’s enemies are cut off, while kindness remains with Jonathan’s house. The promise reaches beyond the person who asks for it and stays with his household “for ever.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that when a person is gone, the care promised to them can be discarded with them; here, kindness continues to their house.
THE ROOT
תַכְרִית
takhrît
GROWS FROM
כרת
to cut or sever
“cut off” in this verse is takhrît. The same root appears first in Jonathan’s plea that David not sever kindness from his house, and then in the LORD’s severing of David’s enemies. The contrast makes the promise’s shape visible: hostility is removed, while kindness is preserved across the household.
ALSO GROWS
takhrît: you cut off, sever
תַכְרִית
This is the verb Jonathan uses for what he asks David not to do to his house’s kindness.
hakhrît: to cut off, sever
הַכְרִית
This form describes the LORD cutting off David’s enemies, echoing the same verb in the request.
karat berit: to cut a covenant; to establish a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The verb also appears in the Hebrew idiom for making a covenant, tying its cutting language to a bond meant to endure.
חֶסֶד
ḥesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
kindness expressed as loyal devotion
“faithful love” in this verse is ḥesed. The kindness here is not a passing feeling: it is loyal care that remains attached to Jonathan’s house. Its reach across the household gives the promise a life beyond the person who asks for it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsîḏ: a faithful or devoted person
חָסִיד
The related word gives loyal devotion a human form, connecting the kindness in this verse to a way of being.
ḥāsad: to show kindness or act loyally
חָסַד
This verbal form makes the root’s loyalty something enacted, not merely felt.
דָּוִד
Dāwîḏ
GROWS FROM
דוד
beloved; beloved one
David’s name carries the meaning “beloved.” In this verse, his enemies are cut off while the kindness bound to Jonathan’s house remains connected to the beloved.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: beloved one; also a kinship term for uncle
דּוֹד
This is the name-root connection: David carries the nature of the beloved into a verse about enduring kindness.
dōdîm: loves or caresses
דּוֹדִים
The same root appears in the language of expressed affection, bringing the name’s beloved nature close to the kindness that continues here.
THE PATTERN
Faithful love keeps a covenant’s reach open across generations and beyond the life of the one who first asked for it.
And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may do faithful love with him for Jonathan's sake?I will guard my faithful love for him for the ages, and my covenant stands firm with him.To make faithful love with our fathers, and to remember his set-apart covenant;THE THREAD
And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may do faithful love with him for Jonathan's sake?The same Hebrew word, חֶסֶד (ḥesed, faithful love), appears in both verses. David’s search for someone from Saul’s house shows the promise taking form: the kindness asked for Jonathan reaches his family.
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