What Does 1 Samuel 25:8 Mean?
Ask your young men, and they will show you. So let the young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Give, please, whatever comes to your hand to your servants, and to your son David.
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
Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.THE KEY
Favor travels from the eyes into the hand, where welcome becomes food.
THE MEANING
You ask to be heard through the people beside you, then to be received with favor and given what the other person can offer. Welcome becomes tangible when what is in someone’s hand is shared. Calling David a son draws the request into the language of kinship, while his name carries the sense of belovedness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that kindness is complete when it stays in someone’s eyes: here, welcome moves into the hand and meets material need.
THE ROOT
חֵן
chen from ḥānan
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor or act graciously.
English “favor” can sound like a private opinion. This root holds it as enacted graciousness: a welcome that lets the request move from being received well to receiving provision.
ALSO GROWS
chen: Favor, acceptance, gracious welcome.
חֵן
This is the word the verse asks to find in Nabal’s eyes; favor makes the visitors welcome before any food changes hands.
chanun: Gracious; one who shows favor.
חַנּוּן
The branch makes favor more than a feeling: it describes the one whose graciousness can become an act of welcome.
chinnam: Freely, without cost or cause.
חִנָּם
This related word carries favor into the realm of what is given freely, echoing the request for whatever is at hand.
תֵּן
ten from nātan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, put, or set.
“give” in this verse is ten from nātan. The request is for what can actually be placed into another’s hand. The root holds giving together with setting or placing, making provision something tangible that passes from one person to another.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: To give, put, or set.
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind the request; the gift is something the giver can put within the servants’ reach.
mattānāh: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
The related noun makes explicit that what is placed in another’s hand becomes a gift.
דָּוִד
David from dōd
GROWS FROM
דוד
Belovedness; דּוֹד (dōd) can mean a beloved one or a kinsman.
The name carries belovedness, so “thy son David” does more than identify the recipient: it places the request in the language of kinship and affection.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved one; also a kinsman such as an uncle.
דּוֹד
The name David carries this beloved sense, which resonates with the verse’s appeal to receive him as a son.
dōdî: My beloved.
דּוֹדִי
This form keeps the same root in a personal bond of belonging, deepening the relational force of naming David.
THE PATTERN
Welcome becomes concrete when what is within reach is shared.
But you shall open your hand wide to him, and you shall surely lend him enough for what he lacks.The one with a good eye is blessed, for he does give of his bread to the emptied.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.THE THREAD
And Jacob said, No, please. If now I have found favor in your eyes, then take my gift from my hand, for I have seen your face as one sees the face of God, and you have accepted me.The same Hebrew word, חֵן (chen, favor), appears in both requests. Genesis places “found grace in thy sight” beside “receive my present at my hand,” making the movement from welcome to tangible gift especially clear.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us