What Does 1 Samuel 20:36 Mean?
And he said to his lad, Run, find now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
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 unto his lad, Run, find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.THE KEY
The arrow is language: its direction carries a warning to David beyond the boy who runs after it.
THE MEANING
A message can reach its intended reader through a visible act. The arrow passes beyond the boy, and its direction carries Jonathan’s warning to David. Where it goes is part of what it says.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a warning must be spoken aloud: the arrow’s trajectory communicates what Jonathan does not tell the boy.
THE ROOT
מוֹרֶה
moreh
GROWS FROM
ירה
To throw or shoot; also to point, direct, or instruct.
The Hebrew word for “shoot” shares its root with language for teaching and direction. The arrow is sent out, but it also points: its course carries an instruction to the person who knows how to read it.
ALSO GROWS
moreh: A teacher or one who directs; here, the form means “shooting.”
מוֹרֶה
The same form can hold shooting and directing together, so the act of launching the arrow also carries guidance.
torah: Instruction or teaching.
תּוֹרָה
Torah comes from the same root; it is direction sent to guide, as Jonathan’s arrow guides David toward the meaning of the signal.
לְהַעֲבִירוֹ
leha'aviro
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass over, cross, or go beyond.
The arrow is described with the language of passing beyond. Its movement crosses the boy’s immediate scene, carrying meaning to someone outside his understanding.
ALSO GROWS
avar: To pass over or cross.
עָבַר
The arrow’s path passes beyond the boy, making its trajectory part of the signal.
ma'avar: A crossing or passage.
מַעֲבָר
This branch evokes a passage from visible action to understood message: the arrow crosses the space between Jonathan’s signal and David’s recognition.
THE PATTERN
A visible sign can carry meaning beyond what its immediate observer sees.
I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be the mark of a covenant between me and the earth.And the blood will be a mark for you upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will leap over you, and the blow will not be upon you to ruin you when I strike down the land of Egypt.He said this, showing what death he was about to die.THE THREAD
And many peoples shall go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will aim us along his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion the instruction shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.“The law” is תּוֹרָה (torah), instruction, from the same root as מוֹרֶה (moreh), “shooting,” in this verse. The shared root holds sending out and directing together: Isaiah’s instruction goes forth, as Jonathan’s arrow does.
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