What Does 1 Samuel 20:26 Mean?
Nevertheless Saul spoke no word that day, for he thought, Something came upon him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.
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
Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.THE KEY
Saul repeats “not clean” as certainty, though all he knows is that David is absent.
THE MEANING
You can see a gap between what is known and what is inferred: David is absent, and Saul thinks ritual uncleanness explains it. Repeating the explanation makes it sound settled, but the verse still presents it as Saul’s thought.
THE ROOT
טָהוֹר
ṭāhôr
GROWS FROM
טהר
to be clean or pure
“clean” in this verse is ṭāhôr. This is ritual cleanness, a status Saul assumes David has lost. The same root names both that condition and the act of cleansing, but Saul’s repeated conclusion comes from his interpretation of David’s absence.
ALSO GROWS
ṭihēr: to cleanse or purify
טִהֵר
The cleansing verb shows the root can describe movement into the clean state Saul assumes David lacks.
ṭohorāh: purity or cleanness
טָהֳרָה
This noun names the condition itself, which Saul attributes to David without knowing what has happened.
THE PATTERN
What is visible can prompt an explanation that outruns what is actually known.
Now Hannah spoke to her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the one who tends the garden, said to him, Sir, if you have carried him off, tell me where you have placed him, and I will lift him away.THE THREAD
Remove my falling short with hyssop, and I am clean; tread me, and I am whiter than snow.Psalm 51 uses the same root טהר (ṭ-h-r), meaning to be clean or pure, as Saul’s repeated words. Here the root appears in a plea for cleansing, making clear that cleanness is a condition, not something Saul can know from David’s absence alone.
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