What Does 1 Samuel 20:29 Mean?
And he said, Send me away, I pray you, for our family has a slaughtered offering in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. And now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me slip away, I pray you, and see my brothers. Therefore he has not come to the king's table.
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 he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me to be there: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he cometh not unto the king’s table.THE KEY
The Hebrew moves from “send me away” to “let me escape,” revealing that the family feast is a cover for a life trying to get clear of danger.
THE MEANING
A departure can be urgent even when its stated reason is only part of what can be spoken. Here, the plea moves from “send me away” to “let me escape,” while the family feast covers the danger driving the departure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The stated reason for leaving is not always the force that makes leaving necessary.
THE ROOT
שַׁלְּחֵנִי
shalḥēnî
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
Send forth, release, let go, or extend the hand.
The request opens with שַׁלְּחֵנִי (shalḥēnî, “send me away”) and the verse closes at שֻׁלְחָן (shulḥān, “table”), echoing the same ש־ל־ח consonants. The table carries the image of provision extended; David’s requested release takes him away from that seat and the king’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: Send away; release.
שַׁלַּח
The same verb appears in the demand “Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1), making release the central action beneath David’s request.
shulḥān: Table; provision set or extended.
שֻׁלְחָן
The final word “table” echoes the same consonants and ties the request for release to the provision and welcome of the king’s table.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the pool of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent waters of Shiloach become a place where sight is restored (John 9:7), carrying the root’s sending image toward renewed perception.
אִמָּלְטָה־נָּא
immālṭā-nā
GROWS FROM
מלט
Escape, slip free, or get clear of danger.
“slip away” in this verse is immālṭā-nā. This second request uses a different root from shalach: it asks for escape, not simply permission to depart. Together, the verbs reveal two layers, the formal sending away and the urgent getting clear.
ALSO GROWS
vayyimmālēṭ: And he escaped.
וַיִּמָּלֵט
The same root describes David escaping Saul’s attack in 1 Samuel 19:10, giving “get away” the sharper sense of getting clear of danger.
himmālēṭ: Escape; get clear.
הִמָּלֵט
The same escape verb appears in Genesis 19:17, where the command is to get clear with one’s life; it brings the urgency of this request into focus.
THE PATTERN
Release is movement out of confinement, whether it takes the form of departure, opened space, or unbinding.
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.From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.The one who had died came out, his hands and feet bound in strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped his face. Jesus said to them, Untie him, and let him go.THE THREAD
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.The same root, שׁלח (shalach, “send forth; release”), appears in the command “Let my people go.” In Samuel, one person asks to be sent away from a king’s table; in Exodus, a people are told to be released from bondage, the shared root reveals both as movement out of constraint.
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