What Does 1 Samuel 20:6 Mean?
If your father at all misses me, then say, David earnestly asked of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly slaughtered offering there for all the family.
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
If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth-lehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.THE KEY
The Hebrew doubles both the verb for Saul taking note of David’s absence and the verb for David’s supposed request, making the cover story sound as emphatic as the inquiry it anticipates.
THE MEANING
David (דָּוִד, Dāvid, “beloved”) scripts how his absence will be explained: he has asked to go to Bethlehem (בֵּית לֶחֶם, Bēt Leḥem, “house of bread”) for the family sacrifice. The verse presents this family obligation as a cover for his absence. Its repeated verbs give weight to both Saul’s checking for David and David’s claimed request.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A plausible explanation for someone’s absence does not guarantee that it tells the whole truth; here, the family sacrifice is a cover story.
THE ROOT
פָּקֹד יִפְקְדֵנִי
paqod yifqedeni
GROWS FROM
פ־ק־ד
p-q-d
to attend to, visit, take note of, or oversee
“misses” in this verse is paqod yifqedeni. The doubled verb פָּקֹד יִפְקְדֵנִי (paqod yifqedeni, “surely take note of me”) carries more than the feeling of missing someone: it pictures active attention to a person’s presence or absence. Saul’s expected response is to check for David, and the repeated form makes that attention emphatic.
ALSO GROWS
pequddah: oversight, charge, appointment, or visitation
פְּקֻדָּה
This branch shows the root extending from taking note of someone to the responsibility or oversight that keeps track of them.
paqīd: officer or overseer
פָּקִיד
The overseer embodies the root’s active attention, illuminating Saul’s anticipated checking on David’s absence.
נִשְׁאֹל נִשְׁאַל
nish'ol nish'al
GROWS FROM
שׁ־א־ל
sh-ʾ-l
to ask or request
“earnestly asked leave” in this verse is nish'ol nish'al. The repeated ask-word marks David’s supposed request as emphatic. The same root appears in Saul’s name, שָׁאוּל (Sha’ul, “asked for”), tying the request David claims to make to the father whose inquiry he anticipates.
ALSO GROWS
she'elah: a question or request
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun preserves the root’s movement from asking to the request itself, the very claim that makes David’s planned excuse sound ordinary.
Sha'ul: Saul; “asked for”
שָׁאוּל
Saul’s name comes from the same ask-root that David’s claimed request repeats, placing the asker and the one being asked about inside one verbal echo.
THE PATTERN
A cover story makes concealed intent pass as an ordinary identity, duty, or piece of evidence.
And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you commanded me. Arise, I pray you, sit and eat of my game, so that your living soul may bless me.This bread of ours we took hot for our food out of our houses on the day we came out to go to you; but now, look, it is dry and spotted.And they watched him, and sent out spies who played at being aligned, so that they might seize on his word, and hand him over to the rule and authority of the governor.THE THREAD
One thing I ask of the LORD, this I will seek; that I may settle in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the sweetness of the LORD, and to search out in his temple.The Hebrew verb behind “desired” in Psalm 27:4 comes from שׁ־א־ל (sh-ʾ-l, “ask or request”), the same root repeated in David’s claimed request here. The root can voice an openly stated desire or a request shaped to conceal its purpose; the word alone does not reveal which one is being spoken.
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