What Does 1 Samuel 24:18 Mean?
And this day you have declared how you have done good with me, for when the LORD gave me into your hand, you did not kill me.
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 thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.THE KEY
The Hebrew behind “delivered” pictures David shut into Saul’s hand, so Saul’s goodness appears in what he does not do with that power.
THE MEANING
When another person is within your reach, the chance to harm them is not the same as a command to do so. Restraint becomes visible in the very moment when violence is possible, and the vulnerable person can recognize what you chose not to do.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Having someone in your power does not make harming them inevitable or right.
THE ROOT
סִגְּרַנִי
siggerani
GROWS FROM
סגר
s-g-r
To shut or close; in this form, to shut someone in or hand them over.
Under “delivered” is the enclosing image of סגר (s-g-r), meaning “shut” or “close”: the line pictures David shut into Saul’s hand. That root holds both the danger of Saul’s power and the bounded moment in which he does not use it to kill.
ALSO GROWS
sāgar: To shut, close.
סָגַר
This basic form keeps the enclosing image present beneath “delivered.”
hisgir: To hand over, surrender into another’s power.
הִסְגִּיר
This related form shows how closing someone in can become handing them over, the danger named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The power to harm is measured by whether it becomes harm, not merely by whether the chance appears.
If the one who hates you hungers, feed him bread; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink.But I say to you, love your enemies, speak well over those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who abuse you and pursue you.Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.THE THREAD
And those who came in, male and female of all flesh, came as God had commanded him, and the LORD shut him in.The LORD’s “shut him in” uses the same Hebrew root, סגר (sāgar), meaning “shut” or “close,” that lies beneath “delivered” here. One enclosure preserves Noah; the other places David within Saul’s reach, and Saul’s choice keeps that access from becoming death.
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