What Does 1 Samuel 24:16 Mean?
And it came to pass, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
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 it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.THE KEY
The Hebrew דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”) makes David’s speech the very matter Saul must meet, and his tears are the answer.
THE MEANING
A voice can reach someone beneath the conflict between you. Recognition can emerge first through tears, before explanation. Saul hears David and calls him “my son”; the moment opens kinship without declaring the danger over.
THE ROOT
הַדְּבָרִים
haddevarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; word or matter.
Davar can name both a word and a matter. David’s words are not merely sound that ends when he stops speaking; they become the matter Saul answers with recognition and tears.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The word that David speaks is also the matter that Saul now has to face.
dibber: To speak or utter.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes the link between David’s speaking and the words he has just finished explicit.
וַיִּשָּׂא
wayyissa
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
The phrase “lifted up his voice” uses a verb that also means to carry or bear. The Hebrew lets the raised voice carry Saul’s grief into the open.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden or load; something carried.
מַשָּׂא
This branch brings the sense of bearing into the moment when Saul gives voice to what he feels.
nasi: A leader or prince; one elevated to prominence.
נָשִׂיא
This related form preserves the root’s image of being lifted up, echoing the raised voice in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Recognition can make estranged kinship audible and visible before the relationship is fully resolved.
And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.And Saul perceived David's voice and said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.THE THREAD
And Saul perceived David's voice and said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.The same question and kinship name return when Saul hears David later, making this recognition a repeated opening in their strained bond. The repetition keeps kinship audible even while their relationship remains unresolved.
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