What Does 1 Samuel 20:33 Mean?
And Saul hurled a spear at him to strike him, and Jonathan knew that it was finished by his father to put David to death.
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 Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.THE KEY
The javelin aimed at Jonathan makes the hidden decision visible: Saul’s purpose to kill David is already complete.
THE MEANING
You see an intention become legible through action: Saul hurls a javelin at Jonathan, and Jonathan perceives that his father is resolved to kill David. The attack on Jonathan exposes the deadly purpose toward David.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a violent outburst can be dismissed as passing anger. Here the javelin reveals that the intention to kill David is settled.
THE ROOT
כָּלָה
kālāh
GROWS FROM
כלה
Be complete or reach an end; in intensive forms, finish or consume.
The Hebrew phrase is built around “complete” or “finished,” giving “determined” the force of a purpose already brought to its conclusion. Jonathan perceives a settled intention to kill David, not merely anger flaring in the moment.
ALSO GROWS
killāh: Finished, completed, consumed
כִּלָּה
This form carries the same root toward an outcome brought to its end, illuminating the finality Jonathan recognizes.
takhlit: End, completion
תַּכְלִית
The root also names an endpoint; here the purpose has a deadly endpoint.
וַיֵּדַע
wayyēdaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
Know, recognize, perceive through encounter.
“knew” in this verse is wayyēdaʿ. Jonathan’s knowing comes through what he witnesses: the javelin makes the intention perceptible. The root ties recognition to encounter, so this is not a guess detached from what happens before him.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, perception
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root points to the recognition Jonathan reaches through what he sees.
hôdîaʿ: Make known, declare
הוֹדִיעַ
The root can also describe making something known; Saul’s act makes his purpose known to Jonathan.
לְהַכֹּתוֹ
lehakōtô
GROWS FROM
נכה
Strike, hit, smite.
The word names a physical strike, keeping the threat embodied and immediate. Jonathan’s recognition follows an attack with a weapon, not an abstract sign of hostility.
ALSO GROWS
makkāh: Blow, wound, stroke
מַכָּה
The same root links the act of striking to the injury it can leave behind.
mukkāh: Struck, smitten, wounded
מוּכֶּה
This form names the one who receives the blow, keeping the threat directed toward a body.
THE PATTERN
When hostility takes physical form, the hidden purpose becomes visible.
And Cain said to Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.Hatred is covered with deceit; his harm is uncovered at the appointed time in the assembly.Then they lifted stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the middle of them, and so passed by.THE THREAD
And Saul hurled the javelin, for he said, I will strike David even to the wall with it. And David fled from the face of Saul twice.Both passages use טוּל (ṭûl), “to cast,” for Saul’s javelin. Earlier it flies toward David; here it flies toward Jonathan, making the same lethal intention visible through a changed target.
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