What Does 1 Samuel 20:22 Mean?
But if I say to the lad, Behold, the arrows are beyond you, go your way, for the LORD has sent you.
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 if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go thy way: for the LORD hath sent thee away.THE KEY
The arrows’ coded message turns “go thy way” into a sending: the verb behind “sent thee away” also carries the sense of release.
THE MEANING
This verse holds departure as an action that can carry you beyond danger, even when the words that announce it must stay coded. Being sent away can be protection held in the LORD’s hand, not proof that you have been discarded.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A necessary separation means you are rejected or abandoned.
THE ROOT
שִׁלַּחְךָ
shillachkha
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, send away, or release.
“sent you” in this verse is shillachkha. English can make this sound only like dismissal, but shalach also carries the force of letting go. Here the departure is named as a sending: the one who goes is released beyond the danger closing in around him.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: A messenger or envoy; one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
The messenger carries the sender’s purpose beyond the sender’s immediate reach, just as this departure carries a message through the young man.
Shiloach: “Sent”; the Hebrew name behind Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
In John 9:7, the pool called “Sent” is where a man washes and comes seeing, linking sending with a release into restored sight.
THE PATTERN
Release takes the form of sending someone beyond what confines or harms them, toward the opening where life can continue.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.“Sent” translates Siloam, whose name connects to shalach, the root behind “sent thee away” here. In one verse, sending carries someone beyond danger; in the other, it carries someone toward restored sight.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us