What Does 1 Samuel 20:40 Mean?
And Jonathan gave his vessels to his lad, and said to him, Go, carry them to the city.
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 gave his artillery unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city.THE KEY
The boy’s errand sends him out of earshot, turning a visible handoff into cover for a private signal.
THE MEANING
A visible handoff can hold two purposes at once: the equipment reaches the city, and the errand opens space for a message that cannot be spoken before the lad. The verse shows how an ordinary instruction can carry meaning through its timing and movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that only spoken words communicate: here, the direction and timing of the errand carry meaning too.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place
“gave” in this verse is wayyitten. The Hebrew verb holds giving and placing together. Jonathan puts the equipment into the lad’s care, so the transfer also becomes a way to place the message in motion.
ALSO GROWS
mattānāh: Gift
מַתָּנָה
A gift is something given into another’s hands; here the handoff carries an added purpose.
nātūn: Given, set, placed
נָתוּן
This branch makes the placement in the lad’s care visible: what is set with him can also be carried onward.
הָבֵא
hāvēʾ
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
Come, enter, arrive; in this form, bring or cause to come
The command points beyond the labor of carrying toward an arrival: bring the equipment to the city. The destination is part of the action, making the lad’s movement carry the signal forward.
ALSO GROWS
bōʾ: Come, enter
בּוֹא
The root centers arrival, which gives the instruction a clear destination.
māvōʾ: Entrance, approach
מָבוֹא
This branch connects bringing something to its arrival point with reaching an entrance or approach.
THE PATTERN
An ordinary task can carry a private signal through the movement it sets in motion.
But if I say to the lad, Behold, the arrows are beyond you, go your way, for the LORD has sent you.And he said to them, Look, when you enter the city, a man carrying a clay jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house he enters.Then take the flask of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and do not linger.THE THREAD
And as soon as the lad was gone, David rose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times. And they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David grew great.The next verse reveals what the departure makes possible: David emerges only after the lad is gone. The errand marks the threshold between a public signal and the private meeting.
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