What Does 1 Samuel 20:23 Mean?
And as for the word which you and I have spoken, behold, let the LORD be between you and me for the ages.
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 as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and me for ever.THE KEY
The matter you have spoken together and the space between you share the same divine witness.
THE MEANING
The LORD is invoked as the presence between you and another person, holding the words you have spoken together in view. That shared matter reaches across the ages, even when the two of you are apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A shared promise only holds while both people are present to renew it. Here, the LORD is named between them across the ages, so the bond is not bounded by proximity.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; a word or matter uttered.
English separates “matter” from “spoken,” but both come from דבר (d-b-r). The shared word is not just a topic beside the speech: it is the matter spoken between you.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
The verse calls what you have discussed a davar, joining the matter itself to the word spoken.
dibber: To speak, say.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root of davar, linking the spoken promise to the matter it names.
בֵּינִי
bēnî
GROWS FROM
בין
b-y-n
To distinguish or discern; to understand.
The word for “between” shares a root with words for discernment and understanding. The space named here carries a recognized relationship: the LORD is invoked within what is shared between you.
ALSO GROWS
beyn: Between.
בֵּין
This is the relational word used for the space between the two speakers.
bin: Discern, understand.
בִּין
The shared root connects relation with recognition: what lies between people is a relation that can be seen and understood.
עַד־עוֹלָם
ʿad-ʿolam
GROWS FROM
עלם
ʿ-l-m
To hide or be out of sight; the word-family carries an unseen horizon.
“for the ages” in this verse is ʿad-ʿolam. עוֹלָם (olam) gives the phrase the scope of an age or ages, reaching beyond one moment. Its association with what is hidden evokes a span whose far edge lies beyond present sight.
ALSO GROWS
olam: Age, ages.
עוֹלָם
This is the word translated “for ever”; it places the shared bond across the ages.
neʿlam: Hidden, concealed.
נֶעְלָם
This related form carries the sense of what is out of sight, echoing the far horizon of an age.
THE PATTERN
God is named in the space between people as witness to a bond that can endure separation.
And Mizpah, the lookout, for he said, The LORD keep watch between me and you, when we are hidden one from another.For where two or three are gathered together in my nature, there I am in the midst of them.THE THREAD
And Mizpah, the lookout, for he said, The LORD keep watch between me and you, when we are hidden one from another.Genesis 31:49 uses the same Hebrew word for “between” and names the LORD watching there when two people are apart. The repeated image opens this verse’s “between” as an enduring relational space, not merely the distance separating two people.
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