What Does 1 Samuel 26:8 Mean?
Then Abishai said to David, God has shut up your enemy into your hand this day; now then, let me strike him, please, with the spear to the ground in a single stroke, and I will not add a second stroke.
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
Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “delivered” also means “shut in,” yet Abishai turns an enemy’s confinement into permission for an immediate spear strike.
THE MEANING
An adversary can be within reach, and that circumstance can sound like a divine handoff. Abishai takes the opening as permission to strike him down with a spear in one blow. The verse catches the moment when access becomes a claim of authority.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being able to reach an enemy proves that God authorizes me to kill him.
THE ROOT
הִסְגִּיר
hisgir
GROWS FROM
סגר
sagar
To shut, close, or enclose; in this form, to hand over or deliver into another’s custody.
“shut up into your hand” in this verse is hisgir. The verse’s “delivered” carries the image of someone shut in or handed over. Abishai treats that enclosure as authorization, though the verb itself describes the enemy’s position, not what David is permitted to do.
ALSO GROWS
vayyisgor: He shut or closed.
וַיִּסְגֹּר
The same root describes the LORD shutting Noah inside the ark, showing how enclosure can mean being held within someone’s power.
soger: One who shuts or closes.
סוֹגֵר
This form keeps the concrete sense of closing visible beneath “handed over”: the enemy is enclosed within David’s reach.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod
Beloved; the same word also names a close male relative, such as an uncle.
David’s name carries the sense of “beloved,” and this proposal is made to the beloved while an enemy is exposed. The name brings the scene’s human relationship into view without deciding what David will choose.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved, or a close male relative such as an uncle.
דּוֹד
This is the word behind David’s name and gives the name its sense of belovedness.
dodim: Loves or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
The plural form extends the same root into affection and desire, adding relational depth to the name spoken in this moment.
אַכֶּנּוּ
akkennu
GROWS FROM
נכה
nakah
To strike, hit, or wound.
The root makes the proposal physically exact: Abishai means to strike the enemy down with a spear. Its other forms name the blow and the person struck, keeping the violence in the verse concrete.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
The noun names the force of the strike Abishai proposes.
mukkeh: One who is struck or beaten.
מֻכֶּה
This form puts the bodily consequence on the person Abishai means to hit.
THE PATTERN
An enemy’s vulnerability does not, by itself, make destroying that enemy an act of justice.
And he said to his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed one, to stretch out my hand against him, for he is the anointed one of the LORD.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.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
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.The phrase “delivered me into thine hand” uses the same Hebrew root, סגר, “to shut in” or “hand over.” Saul names the exposed moment and the fact that David did not kill him, echoing the choice Abishai now urges.
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