What Does 1 Samuel 24:5 Mean?
And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart struck him, because he had cut off the wing of Saul's robe.
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 afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.THE KEY
The Hebrew word rendered “skirt” also means “wing”: David cuts Saul’s garment-wing, while the same word elsewhere names a covering someone can spread over another.
THE MEANING
Your heart can register an outward act as an inward blow; what looks small in your hand can still matter within you. David’s heart strikes him over the piece he removes from Saul’s garment, holding the outer cut and inner impact in one scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a small visible act is automatically harmless. Here, the heart registers the cut of a garment as a blow.
THE ROOT
כָּנָף
kānāph
GROWS FROM
כנף
Wing; extremity, edge, or corner.
כָּנָף (kānāph, wing or edge) names both a bird’s wing and the outer edge of a garment. English “skirt” leaves the wing-image closed, though the same word can describe a covering spread over another.
ALSO GROWS
kānāph: Wing, as of a bird.
כָּנָף
The same noun also names the edge or corner of a garment, so its bird-wing sense is already inside the word translated “skirt.”
kĕnāphekhā: Your wing; your garment edge or covering.
כְּנָפֶךָ
Ruth 3:9 uses this form when Ruth asks for Boaz’s skirt to be spread over her: the garment-wing can be extended as shelter.
וַיַּךְ
wayyak
GROWS FROM
נכה
Strike, smite, or inflict a blow.
“struck” in this verse is wayyak. The verb is the ordinary word for striking, and the same root forms מַכָּה (makkāh, a blow or plague). The verse gives David’s heart the force of an impact: the cut reaches him as something felt, not as a detached thought.
ALSO GROWS
nākhāh: To strike or smite.
נָכָה
The root’s direct action is to land a blow; “heart smote him” keeps that physical force in the inward response.
makkāh: A blow; a plague.
מַכָּה
The noun preserves the root as something that lands upon or afflicts someone, giving the heart’s response more force than a passing pang.
כָּרַת
kārat
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut or sever.
כָּרַת (kārat) means to cut or sever and appears in the phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (kārat berît, “cut a covenant”). The same root can describe removal and a binding act, so “cut off” carries a relational edge beyond the tailoring of cloth.
ALSO GROWS
kĕrîtût: Cutting off; a bill or certificate of divorce.
כְּרִיתוּת
This word for divorce keeps separation in the same root family, showing that the root’s reach extends beyond trimming.
kārat berît: To cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
Scripture uses the same verb for entering a covenant; cutting can enact a bond as well as sever something.
THE PATTERN
The heart makes an outward act inwardly present.
And David's heart struck him after he had counted the people. And David said to the LORD, "I have missed the mark greatly in what I have done. And now, I beg you, O LORD, carry away the crookedness of your servant, for I have done very foolishly."Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.Who point to the work of instruction written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness alongside them, and their reckonings between one another accusing or answering.THE THREAD
And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your handmaid. So spread your wing over your handmaid, for you are a redeemer.The word KJV renders “skirt” here is the same כָּנָף (kānāph, wing or garment edge) that appears in Ruth’s request. David cuts Saul’s garment-wing; Ruth’s verse speaks of that wing spread over another, so one word holds both a removed covering and an offered one.
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