What Does 1 Samuel 20:5 Mean?
And David said to Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But send me away, that I may cover myself in the field until the third day, at evening.
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 David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.THE KEY
The hinge is שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release): David asks to be sent away from the king’s table, and that release opens the interval of concealment.
THE MEANING
The verse gives voice to the split between being expected somewhere and needing to stay out of sight: you can be called to the king’s table and still need distance from it. David asks Jonathan to send him away, then to remain hidden in the field until the third evening. His departure creates a defined interval; the danger has not yet passed.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּחְתַּנִי
ve-shillachtani
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
Send forth, send away, release.
“send me away” in this verse is ve-shillachtani. The verb carries both dispatch and release: David asks Jonathan to send him away from the king’s table. That release is immediately followed by concealment, giving his departure a precise destination and purpose.
ALSO GROWS
shaluach: Sent out; dispatched.
שָׁלוּחַ
This form makes clear that sending moves someone from one place or situation into another.
mishloach: A sending forth; a dispatch.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
The noun names the act of sending that the verse places between the table and the field.
וְנִסְתַּרְתִּי
ve-nistarti
GROWS FROM
סתר
satar
Conceal, hide, keep out of sight.
“cover myself” in this verse is ve-nistarti. The form presents David as concealing himself and becoming hidden. Its family includes סֵתֶר (seter, a secret or hiding place), so the root can name both the act and the place of concealment.
ALSO GROWS
seter: A secret; a hidden place.
סֵתֶר
The branch gives concealment a location, echoing David’s move from the king’s table into the field.
histir: To hide or conceal.
הִסְתִּיר
This verbal form shows the same root at work as an active act of hiding.
חֹדֶשׁ
chodesh
GROWS FROM
חדש
chadash
Be new; renew.
חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh, new moon or month) grows from the root also seen in חָדָשׁ (chadash, new) and חִדֵּשׁ (chiddesh, renew), so the date marker carries the idea of beginning anew. Here it sets the timetable for David’s concealment, placing renewal and hiding in the same moment.
ALSO GROWS
chadash: New.
חָדָשׁ
The adjective makes the root’s sense of newness explicit in the name for the new moon.
chiddesh: Renew; make new.
חִדֵּשׁ
This verb expresses the renewal carried by the calendar word in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Release moves a person from restraint into the next space of action.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The king sent and loosened him, ruler of peoples, and let him out into the open.The one who had died came out, his hands and feet bound in strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped his face. Jesus said to them, Untie him, and let him go.THE THREAD
You hide them in the hiding place of your face, from the plots of man; you store them in a booth, from the striving of tongues.David’s וְנִסְתַּרְתִּי (ve-nistarti, I will hide myself) and the psalm’s תַּסְתִּירֵם (tastirem, you will hide them) are forms of סתר (satar, hide or conceal); the psalm also uses סֵתֶר (seter, secret place). The shared root opens David’s chosen concealment onto the psalm’s image of shelter within divine presence.
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