What Does 1 Samuel 22:13 Mean?
And Saul said to him, Why have you bound yourselves together against me, you and the son of Jesse, because you gave him bread and a sword, and asked God for him, so that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as on this day?
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 Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?THE KEY
Saul’s word for “conspired” means “bound together,” exposing how he binds bread, a sword, and seeking God into one story of rebellion.
THE MEANING
When a position feels threatened, another person’s food, protection, and appeal to God can be gathered into a single charge of conspiracy. The verse shows how accusation binds separate acts into one story of rebellion, and how that story can reveal the accuser’s fear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A coherent accusation does not prove that separate acts share a hostile purpose.
THE ROOT
קְשַׁרְתֶּם
qĕshartem
GROWS FROM
קשר
q-sh-r
To bind, tie, or fasten together.
“bound yourselves together” in this verse is qĕshartem. The word translated “conspired” names a binding together; the hostile meaning comes from the context. Saul binds bread, a sword, and an inquiry of God into one accusation, as though their connection itself proves rebellion.
ALSO GROWS
qashar: To bind or tie
קָשַׁר
The same verb describes binding God’s words as a sign on the hand and forehead in Deuteronomy 6:8.
qesher: A conspiracy or plot
קֶשֶׁר
The noun carries the same root’s sense of people being bound together in a plan.
וְשָׁאוֹל
wə-shāʾōl
GROWS FROM
שאל
sh-ʾ-l
To ask, request, or seek.
“Enquired” comes from sha’al, “to ask,” and Saul’s name, Sha’ul, shares those same Hebrew consonants and is commonly understood as “asked for” or “requested.” The king’s name thus echoes the very act of asking God that he treats as evidence against David.
ALSO GROWS
sha’al: To ask or request
שָׁאַל
The same verb appears when Hannah says she has asked the LORD for a son in 1 Samuel 1:20.
sha’al: To borrow or request for a time
שָׁאַל
This use in Exodus 3:22 shows the root’s range from asking to obtaining something by request.
לֶחֶם
leḥem
GROWS FROM
לחם
l-ḥ-m
The consonants לחם occur in the word for bread and also in a distinct Hebrew word family for fighting; the senses remain distinct.
Leḥem (“bread”) and laḥam (“fight”) share the consonants לחם, bringing food and conflict into a sound-echo in Saul’s accusation. That echo does not make bread mean warfare, but it sharpens the tension between the bread David receives and the sword named beside it.
ALSO GROWS
laḥam: To fight
לָחַם
Its consonants echo the word for bread as Saul gathers food and a sword into his charge.
milḥāmāh: War or warfare
מִלְחָמָה
This related fight-word makes the conflict side of the bread-and-sword sound echo audible.
THE PATTERN
Threatened authority can recast another person’s aid or appeal to God as evidence of rebellion.
And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Are you the one who muddies Israel?If we let him go on like this, all will lean their weight into him, and the Romans will come and lift away both our place and our nation.The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the aligned are bold as a lion.THE THREAD
And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.The verb behind “conspired” is qashar, “to bind”; Deuteronomy uses that same verb for binding the words on hand and forehead. The root names the joining, while the context shapes whether that binding is a sign or a plot.
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