What Does 1 Samuel 20:32 Mean?
And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, Why shall he die? What has he done?
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 Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said unto him, Wherefore shall he be slain? what hath he done?THE KEY
Jonathan makes the sentence itself answerable: what has David done that warrants death?
THE MEANING
A life is threatened by authority, and Jonathan’s question interrupts the threat: what has this person done? It refuses to let the command to kill become its own justification. David remains visible as a person whose actions matter, even as power moves against him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sentence of death is not proof of guilt; authority’s decision cannot replace an answer to “What hath he done?”
THE ROOT
יוּמַת
yumat
GROWS FROM
מות
To die; in this causative form, to be put to death.
The Hebrew form means David is to be made to die, with an agent behind the death. Jonathan presses on the gap between an intended killing and any act of David that could account for it.
ALSO GROWS
māvet: Death.
מָוֶת
The noun names the literal outcome Jonathan is questioning.
hēmit: To cause to die; to put to death.
הֵמִית
This causative form makes the agent’s role explicit: Saul intends to make David die.
עָשָׂה
asah
GROWS FROM
עשה
To do, make, or bring about.
“done” in this verse is asah. Jonathan asks about an act, not David’s identity or position. The same root holds both doing and making: what has David actually brought about that could justify making him die?
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: A deed or work.
מַעֲשֶׂה
It makes the question concrete: what deed is being counted against David?
asuy: Made or done.
עָשׂוּי
This form echoes the question’s focus on what has actually been brought about.
יְהוֹנָתָן
Yehonatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place; the name means “YHWH has given.”
Jonathan’s name carries giving in its shape. Here, he uses his voice to defend David’s life against an intent to take it.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This verb carries the central meaning within Jonathan’s name.
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
The branch connects Jonathan’s name to what is given, sharpening the contrast with the death being planned.
THE PATTERN
A death sentence cannot answer for itself; the threatened person’s deeds must be brought into view.
And the LORD said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.He who aligns the wicked, and he who convicts the aligned one, both are loathed by the LORD.The governor said, Why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, saying, Let him be crucified.THE THREAD
The governor said, Why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, saying, Let him be crucified.Jonathan and Pilate both ask what the man facing death has done. Each question exposes the gap between the demand to kill and a deed that could justify it.
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