What Does 1 Samuel 20:30 Mean?
Then Saul's nostrils burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a bent and rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?
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
Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother’s nakedness?THE KEY
The Hebrew casts Jonathan as actively choosing David, so Saul’s accusation targets an allegiance still being lived, not a decision sealed in the past.
THE MEANING
Saul’s anger calls Jonathan’s allegiance a shameful choice and extends the insult to his mother’s nakedness. The accusation shows a demand for loyalty that reaches beyond Jonathan himself and tries to turn his choice into a family disgrace.
THE ROOT
בֹּחֵר
bōḥēr
GROWS FROM
בחר
The root בחר (b-ḥ-r) means to choose or select.
בֹּחֵר is an active participle: Saul describes Jonathan as choosing David, a present allegiance. The same root names both the act of choosing and the one chosen, keeping Jonathan’s action and David’s place within one word family.
ALSO GROWS
bāḥar: To choose or select.
בָּחַר
This verb makes clear that Saul’s anger centers on Jonathan’s act of choosing David.
bāḥīr: Chosen one.
בָּחִיר
The same root names the person selected, linking Jonathan’s choice to David’s position.
mibḥār: A choice or selection; something selected.
מִבְחָר
This noun carries the root’s sense of selection into the result of a choice.
THE PATTERN
Choosing one allegiance exposes which competing claim a person serves.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you settle. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will hold fast to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.The same Hebrew root בחר (b-ḥ-r, to choose) that names Jonathan’s choice appears in the command to choose life. That verse says the choice reaches thy seed, echoing how Saul makes Jonathan’s allegiance carry into an insult against his mother.
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