What Does 1 Samuel 22:19 Mean?
And Nob, the city of the priests, he struck down with the mouth of the sword, men and women, little ones and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the mouth of the sword.
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 Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.THE KEY
The Hebrew says “mouth of the sword” twice, framing a list that reaches from adults to nursing infants and livestock: the verse makes the destruction of the whole community visible.
THE MEANING
This verse refuses to let mass violence stay abstract: it names the city’s people down to nursing infants, then names its animals. The list makes visible how far the violence reaches, including those unable to resist.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a massacre reaches only armed opponents: women, nursing infants, and livestock are explicitly included.
THE ROOT
חֶרֶב
ḥerev
GROWS FROM
חרב
Dry up; become desolate.
The consonants חרב also form a verb for drying up or becoming desolate, placing the sword beside the devastation it leaves. The Hebrew phrase literally says “mouth of the sword,” and it appears on both sides of the list, enclosing the people and animals in that image.
ALSO GROWS
charav: To dry up or become desolate.
חָרַב
This verb’s sense of desolation sits alongside the destruction named in the verse.
chorev: Dryness or drought.
חֹרֶב
The dry-state sense extends the word-family’s imagery beyond the weapon to a place stripped of life.
cherev: Sword.
חֶרֶב
The repeated Hebrew phrase is “by the mouth of the sword,” translated here as “with the edge of the sword.”
יוֹנֵק
yoneq
GROWS FROM
ינק
Suck; draw nourishment.
“nursing infants” in this verse is yoneq. The word names a child still nursing; the same form also names a tender shoot in Isaiah 53:2. Both images describe life in a dependent, not-yet-grown state, so the list specifies that the violence reaches even there.
ALSO GROWS
yanaq: To suck or nurse.
יָנַק
The verb behind “suckling” points directly to an infant still drawing nourishment.
yoneq: A suckling; also a young shoot or tender plant.
יוֹנֵק
The shared word links a nursing child with vulnerable new growth, illuminating whom the verse includes in the destruction.
THE PATTERN
The text exposes the total reach of violence by naming those beyond the fighting, including infants and animals.
You shall surely strike those who settle in that city with the mouth of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and its livestock, with the mouth of the sword.Now go and strike Amalek, and devote all that they have to destruction, and do not spare them; but put to death man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.And Hazael said, Why does my lord weep? And he answered, Because I perceive the evil you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds ablaze, slay their young men with the sword, dash their little ones, and split open their women heavy with child.THE THREAD
Now go and strike Amalek, and devote all that they have to destruction, and do not spare them; but put to death man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.This verse uses the same Hebrew word, יוֹנֵק (yoneq), for “suckling.” In both passages, that nursing child appears among the named victims, making the reach of the violence explicit.
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