What Does 1 Samuel 20:20 Mean?
And I will shoot three arrows toward its side, as though I shot at a target.
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 I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark.THE KEY
The arrow appears to have a target, but its true aim is to send a message.
THE MEANING
The arrows are aimed in plain sight, but their placement carries a second message for the one who knows how to read it. What looks like a shot at a mark becomes a signal, so the visible act and its hidden meaning coexist.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that what an action appears to do is all it means.
THE ROOT
אוֹרֶה
ʾōreh
GROWS FROM
ירה
To throw or shoot; in a related form, to direct or instruct.
“shoot” in this verse is ʾōreh. English gives you only a shot; the Hebrew root also carries direction and instruction. Its branches link an arrow tracing a line through space with teaching that directs a person, fitting a verse where the shot’s course carries a message.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction or teaching.
תּוֹרָה
The same root links the arrow’s physical direction with instruction that points someone along a way.
moreh: One who teaches or directs.
מוֹרֶה
As the arrow points along a course, the instructor directs understanding; here, the arrow’s course itself communicates.
THE PATTERN
A visible sign can carry meaning beyond its apparent purpose.
I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be the mark of a covenant between me and the earth.Before their eyes you shall lift it upon your shoulder, and in the dark you shall lift it. You shall cover your face, so that you do not see the earth. For I have set you as a sign to the house of Israel.And when he came to us, he lifted Paul's belt, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus says the Set-Apart Breath, so will the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over into the hands of the nations.THE THREAD
Good and straight is the LORD. Therefore he aims those who miss the mark down the way.The Hebrew verb translated “teach” is יוֹרֶה (yōreh, “he instructs”), from the same root יָרָה (yārâ, “direct or shoot”) as “shoot” here. The root joins an arrow’s direction with instruction that points a person along a way.
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