What Does 1 Samuel 24:13 Mean?
As the proverb of the ancients says, Wickedness goes out from the wicked, but my hand shall not be upon you.
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
As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses the same root for “the wicked” and “wickedness,” tracing harm to its source while leaving your own hand free to choose what comes next.
THE MEANING
What comes from a person bears the character of its source. Yet another person’s wickedness does not make your response inevitable: your hand can remain off them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being harmed makes retaliation inevitable, or proves that your hand must answer with the same harm.
THE ROOT
רֶשַׁע
rešaʿ
GROWS FROM
רשע
r-sh-ʿ
To be guilty or act wickedly; the root names both the wicked person and the wickedness that comes from them.
The Hebrew says, “from the wicked ones goes out wickedness”: מֵרְשָׁעִים יֵצֵא רֶשַׁע. The source and its outflow share one root, while the withheld hand marks a choice not to continue that outflow.
ALSO GROWS
rəšāʿîm: Wicked ones
רְשָׁעִים
This is the source named in the proverb; it shares its root with “wickedness.”
rāšaʿ: To act wickedly or be guilty
רָשַׁע
The same root describes wickedness as conduct, linking the person named in the proverb with what proceeds from them.
THE PATTERN
What flows from a source discloses its character, while the next act need not repeat the harm already present.
A good tree cannot make evil fruit, and a rotten tree cannot make good fruit.Does the same spring gush from the same opening, the sweet and the bitter?THE THREAD
Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.“Ungodly” here translates רְשָׁעִים (rəšāʿîm), from the same root as “wickedness” in the proverb. Psalm 1 shows that source extending into counsel and way: what proceeds from the wicked also shapes the paths around them.
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