What Does 1 Samuel 24:9 Mean?
And David said to Saul, Why do you hear and respond to the words of men, saying, Behold, David seeks your harm?
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 David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men’s words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?THE KEY
A rumor gains power when hearing turns it into a verdict about someone’s nature.
THE MEANING
You can hear what others say about someone without knowing that person’s intent. David’s question names the gap between hearing an accusation and knowing whether it is true. The person being discussed can speak; the words circulating about them do not contain their whole nature.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If several people say someone means me harm, that alone proves the person does.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמַע
tishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
Hear, listen, heed.
“hear and respond to” in this verse is tishmaʿ. The verb here is tishmaʿ, “you hear or listen”; its root also forms shemuah, a report or news, what has been heard. The verse exposes the space between receiving a report and letting it define the person it names.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This branch shows that hearing can include attending and responding, which gives weight to David’s question about what Saul is listening to.
shemuah: Report, news; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The accusation reaches Saul as a report, but the verse leaves open whether that report is true.
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; word, matter, or affair.
English “words” can sound like mere speech, while davar can also mean a matter or affair. The report about David has become the matter Saul attends to, showing how speech can shape what seems real.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The men’s words are also the matter under dispute: whether David seeks Saul’s harm.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֶּר
This verbal branch links the report to the act of speaking that carries the accusation from person to person.
דָּוִד
Dāwid
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved, dear.
David’s name carries the nature of the beloved. That name sits in sharp tension with the accusation that he seeks Saul’s harm.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also kinsman.
דּוֹד
This related word carries the beloved sense found in David’s name.
dodi: My beloved.
דּוֹדִי
The same word-family makes the name’s sense of belovedness audible beneath the accusation.
THE PATTERN
A report does not become truth merely by being heard; judgment waits on hearing and testing.
You shall not lift up a false report; do not set your hand with the wicked to be a witness of violence.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Does our instruction judge a man before it hears him, and know what he does?THE THREAD
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Both verses turn on שׁמע (shama, hear or listen). David asks why Saul listens to men’s claims; Proverbs names the danger of deciding a matter before hearing it, revealing the step that the accusation leaves out.
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