What Does 1 Samuel 23:20 Mean?
Now then, O king, come down according to all the longing of your living soul to come down; and our part shall be to shut him up into the king's hand.
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
Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.THE KEY
The word translated “deliver” carries the image of shutting David into the king’s hand, turning a handover into an enclosure.
THE MEANING
The king is urged to descend according to the full desire of his living soul, while David is spoken of as destined for the king’s grasp. The verb translated “deliver” pictures shutting someone into another’s control, making capture sound settled before it occurs.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Someone else’s confident promise to hand you over does not make you already theirs; the claim of possession and possession itself remain distinct.
THE ROOT
הַסְגִּירוֹ
hasgiro
GROWS FROM
סגר
sāgar, shut, close, enclose.
“shut him up” in this verse is hasgiro. The verb grows from the root meaning “shut” or “close,” so the king’s hand is pictured as an enclosure David will be placed inside. The same word family can describe protective closing-in or hostile handover; the surrounding words determine what the enclosure means here.
ALSO GROWS
sāgūr: closed, shut
סָגוּר
The closed state keeps the verse’s image of enclosure visible.
hisgîr: hand over, surrender
הִסְגִּיר
This form describes placing someone into another’s control.
נַפְשְׁךָ
nafshkha
GROWS FROM
נפש
nephesh, living self, living soul.
The king’s desire is located in his living soul, his whole living self. The phrase joins the appetite to the person who feels it rather than treating desire as detached from life.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: living soul, living being
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word naming the king’s whole living self.
nāphaš: rest, be refreshed
נָפַשׁ
This verbal branch links the word family with the refreshment of a living self.
THE PATTERN
Being shut within a boundary can mean protection, danger, or capture; the context reveals what holds the living one.
And those who came in, male and female of all flesh, came as God had commanded him, and the LORD shut him in.And you do not shut me into the hand of the enemy; you make my feet stand in a broad place.And when they had done this, they shut in a great multitude of fish, and their nets were tearing apart.THE THREAD
And you do not shut me into the hand of the enemy; you make my feet stand in a broad place.It uses the same Hebrew root סגר (sāgar, “shut, close”) and the same image of being placed into a hand. Here, David is promised into a king’s hand; the psalm names not being shut into an enemy’s hand and sets that refusal beside “a large room.”
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