What Does 1 Samuel 28:10 Mean?
And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD lives, no crookedness shall come upon you for this matter.
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 Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.THE KEY
The assurance is phrased as a conditional oath, “As the LORD lives, if guilt meets you”, leaving its consequence unstated while binding Saul’s words to the LORD’s name.
THE MEANING
A promise made in the LORD’s name binds the speaker to the assurance. The Hebrew takes an oath-shaped form, “As the LORD lives, if guilt meets you in this matter”, whose force is that no punishment will reach her. The promise of protection and the speaker’s accountability occupy the same sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that invoking God’s name makes a promise consequence-free: the oath binds its speaker to the assurance.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשָּׁבַע
wayyiššāvaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
To swear or take an oath.
“sware” in this verse is wayyiššāvaʿ. The root שׁבע (sh-b-ʿ, to swear) names the act, while שְׁבוּעָה (shevuʿah, oath) names the pledge formed by it. Saul’s words use a conditional oath formula, making his assurance more than emphatic speech: it is bound to the name he invokes.
ALSO GROWS
shevuʿah: Oath, sworn pledge.
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun names the binding pledge contained in Saul’s reassurance.
nishbaʿ: Swore, took an oath.
נִשְׁבַּע
This form shares the root and shows the act of swearing expressed in the verse.
hishbiaʿ: Made someone swear, adjured.
הִשְׁבִּיעַ
This causative form shows that the same root can bind another person to an oath.
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
Word or speech; also a matter or affair.
“for this matter” in this verse is dāḇār. The Hebrew דָּבָר (dāḇār, word or matter) holds together what English divides into speech and “thing.” The oath is spoken over “this matter,” joining the words of assurance to the event they address.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: Spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verb comes from the same root and connects the matter in the verse with spoken words.
dibbur: Speech, utterance.
דִּבּוּר
This noun shows the speech-side of the same root that names the matter Saul’s oath concerns.
THE PATTERN
An oath makes a speaker’s assurance answerable to the greater name invoked.
And I will bind you by the LORD, the God of the heavens, and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I settle.If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind a binding upon his living soul, he does not pierce his word; he does according to all that goes out of his mouth.For humankind swears by the greater, and an oath for steadying is for them the boundary of every word set against.THE THREAD
And I will bind you by the LORD, the God of the heavens, and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I settle.The Hebrew root שׁבע (sh-b-ʿ, to swear) in Saul’s “sware” also appears in “make thee swear.” In both verses, the oath binds a commitment to the LORD’s name, revealing the invoked name as part of the pledge’s force.
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