What Does 1 Samuel 23:22 Mean?
Go now, make yourselves firm again, and know and see the place where his foot will be, and who has seen him there; for it is set before me that he is very crafty.
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
Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly.THE KEY
In Hebrew, David’s “foot” and the word for “spy” grow from the same root: the path itself becomes the means of finding him.
THE MEANING
Your movements can leave a trace: where your foot goes, who sees you there, and the pattern another person can follow. The verse shows observation becoming pursuit, as those looking for David use his location and witnesses to narrow the search.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being difficult to find does not make someone untraceable; repeated paths and witnesses can still reveal where they are.
THE ROOT
רַגְלוֹ
raglô
GROWS FROM
רגל
Foot; by extension, going about on foot.
“where his foot will be” in this verse is raglô. The Hebrew says to learn where David’s foot is. The same root also forms a word for spying, joining the path a person takes to the act of going about to discover where they are.
ALSO GROWS
regel: Foot, a step.
רֶגֶל
This is the noun in the verse: the place where David’s foot falls becomes the clue the searchers are told to find.
rāgal: To go about, spy out.
רָגַל
The same root names the activity of going about to inspect or spy, linking footsteps with surveillance.
עָרוּם יַעֲרִים
ʿārûm yaʿărîm
GROWS FROM
ערם
To act shrewdly or craftily.
“very crafty” in this verse is ʿārûm yaʿărîm. The Hebrew repeats the root in its description of David: “he is shrewd; he will act shrewdly.” The English phrase “dealeth very subtilly” hides that repetition, making the doubled characterization sound like a degree of subtlety.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārûm: Shrewd, crafty.
עָרוּם
This adjective describes David as someone whose actions require the searchers to look carefully.
ʿormāh: Craftiness, shrewdness.
עָרְמָה
This noun from the same root shows that the verse is describing a quality and its expression in action.
THE PATTERN
A person’s path remains legible to whoever is watching, and observation can become a means of pursuit.
They gather, they hide, they watch my heels, when they lie in wait for my living soul.For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he levels all his paths.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
And Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land.Joseph’s word for “spies,” מְרַגְּלִים (meraglim), shares the root רגל with David’s “foot” in this verse. English separates a body part from a spy, but Hebrew links spying with going about on foot: a person’s trail can become the information that locates them.
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