What Does 1 Samuel 20:38 Mean?
And Jonathan called out after the lad, Hurry, hasten, do not stand still. And Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.
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 cried after the lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.THE KEY
Urgency is built from three different Hebrew verbs: a call is sent out, the hurry is renewed, and standing still is ruled out.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you as a voice reaching after you: hurry, hasten, do not stand still. Its commands make urgency immediate, leaving no still interval between hearing the call and moving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that pausing is neutral: in this moment, remaining in place is exactly what the voice forbids.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָא
wayyiqrāʾ
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call, summon, proclaim.
“called out after” in this verse is wayyiqrāʾ. The shout is an act of calling across distance, not just an expression of emotion. This root also gives words for a caller and a convocation, revealing the cry as a directed summons.
ALSO GROWS
qōrēʾ: One who calls; a reader.
קֹרֵא
The same root can send a call toward a hearer or voice words aloud for others to receive.
miqrāʾ: Convocation; public reading.
מִקְרָא
A call can gather attention into a shared moment, as Jonathan’s cry gathers the lad’s attention.
חוּשָׁה
ḥûšāh
GROWS FROM
חוש
ḥ-w-š
Hurry, hasten.
The second push is a distinct Hebrew verb of hurrying, renewing the urgency of “Make speed.” The root carries haste as directed movement, not merely a feeling of impatience.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaštî: I made haste.
חַשְׁתִּי
Psalm 119:60 uses the same root alongside “delayed not,” joining haste to the absence of delay.
ʾaḥîšennāh: I will hasten it.
אָחִישֶׁנָּה
In Isaiah 60:22 the root describes bringing something forward quickly, giving haste a direction toward an outcome.
תַּעֲמֹד
taʿămōd
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
Stand, take one’s position, remain.
“do not stand still” in this verse is taʿămōd. The verb pictures standing in place, so “stay not” gives the urgency a concrete edge: do not remain where you are. The line moves from renewed haste to the cancellation of standing still.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōmēd: Standing; one who stands.
עֹמֵד
This form makes visible the posture the command rules out.
maʿămād: Standing place; position.
מַעֲמָד
The root can name a position one occupies, sharpening the command not to remain in place.
THE PATTERN
A summons reaches its full force when its hearer answers without delay and moves.
And the messenger of the LORD called to him from the heavens, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."I hurry, and I do not linger to guard your commandments.Jesus stood still and said to call him. They called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up, he is calling you.THE THREAD
Then you shall call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the stretching of the finger, and speaking emptiness.The “call” and “cry” here come from קָרָא (qārāʾ, to call or summon), the same root rendered “cried” in Jonathan’s shout. That shared root makes his cry a summons aimed at the one moving ahead of him.
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