What Does 1 Samuel 20:24 Mean?
So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat bread.
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
So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.THE KEY
David’s hiddenness is not absence from the story: the beloved is out of sight while the king’s table continues.
THE MEANING
The line holds two scenes together: David remains concealed in the field, and the king takes his seat at the meal as the new moon arrives. Belovedness can remain real beyond the room where power gathers; being unseen does not make a life disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a life outside the visible table is absent or erased.
THE ROOT
וַיִּסָּתֵר
wayyissater
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide, conceal, or keep out of sight.
“hid himself” in this verse is wayyissater. English “hid” can sound like simple absence. This root also forms words for a secret place and a hidden thing, so concealment can be a space where a life remains present beyond the public scene.
ALSO GROWS
seter: Secret place; concealment.
סֵתֶר
The shared root lets David’s hiding echo the idea of a place held out of sight.
nistar: Hidden; concealed.
נִסְתָּר
This branch names the state David occupies while the royal meal proceeds.
דָּוִד
Dawid
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; dear one.
David’s name carries belovedness, giving the hidden figure a name-nature the English line leaves quiet. He is concealed from the king’s table, not stripped of who he is.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; dear one; also kinsman.
דּוֹד
This related word makes the beloved sense carried by David’s name audible.
dodim: Love; beloved affection or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
The same consonants carry the language of belovedness into another form.
הַחֹדֶשׁ
ha-chodesh
GROWS FROM
חדש
New; to renew.
“new moon” in this verse is ha-chodesh. The time marker shares its root with the word for “new.” A new cycle arrives while David remains concealed and the royal meal continues; renewal here does not mean everything is exposed.
ALSO GROWS
chodesh: Month; new moon.
חֹדֶשׁ
This is the word used for the moment the king’s meal begins.
chadash: New; renewed.
חָדָשׁ
Its shared root adds the sense of a fresh cycle to the scene’s timing.
THE PATTERN
Concealment can preserve a life when public power would expose it.
You hide them in the hiding place of your face, from the plots of man; you store them in a booth, from the striving of tongues.By trust Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was fair, and they did not fear the king's decree.THE THREAD
You hide them in the hiding place of your face, from the plots of man; you store them in a booth, from the striving of tongues.Both verses use סתר (satar), meaning “hide” or “conceal,” and Psalm 31:20 also uses סֵתֶר (seter), “secret place.” That shared root opens David’s field as more than blank absence: concealment can be a sheltering space while the visible meal continues.
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