What Does 1 Samuel 20:25 Mean?
And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall. And Jonathan rose, and Abner sat at Saul's side, and David's place was missed.
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 the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, even upon a seat by the wall: and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, and David’s place was empty.THE KEY
Hebrew links Jonathan’s rising with David’s place, while naming its vacancy with a verb that can also mean to count or attend to what is missing.
THE MEANING
A room can continue its usual order while still making one absence unmistakable. David’s seat remains a named place, and its vacancy shows that he is not there. For you, absence can remain visible even when everyone else is present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that if the room keeps going, the missing person no longer counts: the empty place is exactly what makes the absence visible.
THE ROOT
מְקוֹם
meqom
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
To rise, stand, or be established.
מָקוֹם (maqom, place) grows from קום (qum, rise or stand). Here וַיָּקָם (vayyaqom, and he arose) echoes מְקוֹם (meqom, place): Jonathan rises while David’s standing or position remains named, even though it is vacant.
ALSO GROWS
vayyaqom: Arose, stood up
וַיָּקָם
This is the same root as David’s place, linking Jonathan’s rising to the vacant position.
heqim: To raise or establish
הֵקִים
The root also describes establishing a position, deepening the sense of a place as something that stands.
וַיִּפָּקֵד
vayyippaqed
GROWS FROM
פקד
paqad
To attend to, take account of, visit, or muster; in this form, to be missing or absent.
“missed” in this verse is vayyippaqed. וַיִּפָּקֵד (vayyippaqed, was missing) is a form of פקד (paqad, attend to or take account of). The root also carries the sense of visiting or mustering, so David’s absence is marked as something the room can register.
ALSO GROWS
paqad: To attend to or visit; to take account of
פָּקַד
The root’s language of attention makes the vacancy more than bare space: David is the one the place records as absent.
paqîd: An appointed person or overseer
פָּקִיד
This branch shares the root’s sense of being assigned or accounted for, echoing how the empty place makes David’s absence count.
THE PATTERN
The missing and overlooked remain within the field of attention: a visit, a vacancy, or a search makes their absence count.
And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had spoken.What is a frail one that you remember him, and the son of man that you visit him?Clean and unstained service before God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widowed in their being pressed, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon, and you shall be missed, for your seat will be missed.The same Hebrew root פקד (paqad, attend to or take account of) describes David as missed here and his place as missing in verse 25. The vacant seat is how David’s absence gets counted.
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