What Does 1 Samuel 20:2 Mean?
And Jonathan said to him, Far be it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing, great or small, unless he uncovers my ear. And why would my father hide this word from me? It is not so.
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 he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so.THE KEY
The same Hebrew word names both what is done and what is said about it: the hidden “thing” is also the withheld word.
THE MEANING
Your fear can meet sincere reassurance from someone who loves you. Their confidence may express what they know, but it cannot establish everything they do not know; the hidden matter still has to come into view. The verse holds open the distance between a person’s certainty and what is actually concealed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If someone close to me insists there is no danger, then my fear must be mistaken.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
The verbal root means speak; the noun דָּבָר (davar) can mean a word, matter, affair, or thing.
English “thing” sounds like an object, but דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) also names what is spoken. The verse repeats it for both what the father might do and the matter Jonathan says could not be hidden, binding event to disclosure.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke; communicated.
דִּבֵּר
This verb grows from the same root, linking the hidden matter with the words that could disclose it.
devarim: Words, matters, or things.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps speech and events within one word family, where English separates a “thing” from what is said about it.
יַסְתִּיר
yastir
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide or conceal, to keep something out of sight.
“hide” in this verse is yastir. This root can name a hidden place as well as the act of hiding. Here the concealment creates distance between the matter and the person who expects to hear of it.
ALSO GROWS
seter: A hidden place; a secret place.
סֵתֶר
The root can describe a place where something is kept out of view, as well as the act of concealment.
histatter: To hide oneself or remain concealed.
הִסְתַּתֵּר
This form makes the hiddenness personal: someone or something can remain beyond another’s sight.
THE PATTERN
Hiddenness can delay recognition, but it cannot make the matter disappear; what is concealed can come into view.
Even darkness does not darken from you; the night lights up like day, and darkness is as light to you.He uncovers the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light rests with him.For nothing is hidden that will not be made visible, nor anything concealed that will not be known and come into the light.THE THREAD
The weight of God is to hide a matter; the weight of kings is to search out a matter.The Hebrew word behind “thing” and “matter” here is דָּבָר (davar, word or matter), the same noun repeated in Jonathan’s reply. The proverb treats a concealed davar as something that can still be searched out.
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