What Does 1 Samuel 22:17 Mean?
And the king said to the runners who stood about him, Turn, and put to death the priests of the LORD, because their hand is also with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not uncover it to me. But the servants of the king would not stretch out their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.
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 the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew says “send”: the king commands a killing, but the servants refuse to send their hands into it.
THE MEANING
The king treats the priests’ connection to David as grounds for killing them, and orders the men around him to act. They refuse to put their hands to the violence. The threat is explicit, and so is the refusal that interrupts it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that an authority’s command makes those under it powerless to refuse.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁלֹחַ
lishloach
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
To send, send forth, release, or stretch out the hand.
“stretch out their hand” in this verse is lishloach. The Hebrew phrase is “to send their hand”: the hand is not just proof of allegiance, but an action directed outward. The servants refuse that movement, keeping their hands from the killing.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away; release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
The same root can name letting something go; here, the servants hold back their hands instead of sending them against the priests.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name associated with Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent waters of Shiloach point toward a life-restoring use of this root’s outward movement, unlike the violence the king commands here.
shulchan: Table; a place where provision is spread out.
שֻׁלְחָן
The root’s outward reach can serve provision as well as harm; in this verse, the decisive question is where the hand is sent.
THE PATTERN
A command from authority does not make obedience inevitable; refusal can keep a demanded act from being carried out.
But the midwives stood in awe of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but kept the boys alive.But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor bow down to the golden image which you have set up.Then Peter and the other sent ones answered and said, We must obey God rather than humankind.THE THREAD
Behold, your eyes have seen this day how the LORD gave you into my hand in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but my eye spared you, and I said, I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD's anointed one.The paired verse uses the same Hebrew construction, “send forth my hand.” One scene orders hands against the priests; the other names a refusal to send a hand against Saul. The shared root makes the question of whether a hand is sent into violence the hinge of both passages.
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