What Does 1 Samuel 25:22 Mean?
So may God do to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that is his by the morning light any who pisses against the wall.
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
So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.THE KEY
David makes the absence of any male survivor from Nabal’s household by dawn the measure of his oath.
THE MEANING
David invokes God against his enemies and binds his oath to a brutal condition: by dawn, no male in Nabal’s household is to remain. The phrase “that pisseth against the wall” is a male idiom, making the threat’s scope explicit.
THE ROOT
אַשְׁאִיר
ash'ir
GROWS FROM
שאר
Remain, be left over, survive as a remnant.
The word translated “leave” carries the sense of what remains or survives. David’s oath denies even a male remnant to Nabal’s household by morning.
ALSO GROWS
vayyisha'er: Remained, was left over.
וַיִּשָּׁאֶר
Genesis 7:23 uses this form for Noah and those with him, who remain after destruction; the same root marks who survives.
she'erit: What remains; a surviving remnant.
שְׁאֵרִית
The root can name the remainder itself, sharpening the force of David’s oath: no male remnant is to be left.
THE PATTERN
An oath binds speech to a stated condition or consequence.
And all the people came in to make David eat bread while it was still day. But David swore, saying, May God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, before the sun comes in.So King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own living soul.When day came, certain of the Jews twisted themselves together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had lifted Paul out of the way.THE THREAD
And every standing thing that was upon the face of the ground was wiped out, from humankind to cattle, to the creeping thing, and to the birds of the heavens, and they were wiped from the earth. Only Noah, and those with him in the ark, were left.“Leave” here and “remained” there share שאר (sha’ar, “remain or be left over”), the root of what survives. Genesis names a remnant after destruction; David’s oath uses the same root to deny that any male remnant will survive until dawn.
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