What Does 1 Samuel 28:19 Mean?
Moreover the LORD will also give Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also give the camp of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
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
Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.THE KEY
The repeated “deliver” comes from נתן, “give”: the verse names the LORD’s act as placing Israel into Philistine hands.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks in a hard register: the LORD gives Israel into Philistine power, and Saul is told that he and his sons will be with the speaker tomorrow. Death is not softened; divine judgment, enemy power, and imminent loss stand together in the sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine deliverance always means being spared from danger: here the stated outcome is being handed into enemy power and facing death.
THE ROOT
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“give Israel with you” in this verse is yitten. Twice, the verse uses יִתֵּן before “into the hand,” making the act a placing of Israel under Philistine power. The root lets “deliver” carry the force of transfer and exposure in this line.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb’s dictionary form; it makes the verse’s act concrete as giving Israel over to another’s hand.
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
The noun for a gift grows from the same root of giving; here, the surrounding words specify that what is given is exposed to hostile power.
THE PATTERN
Being given into another’s hand marks a transfer of power, exposing the given one to what that hand will do.
And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord LORD, why have you ever crossed this people over the Jordan, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to wipe us out? If only we had been content, and settled across the Jordan!And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with part of the vessels of the house of God. He carried them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Sleep on now and rest. Look, the hour has drawn near, and the Son of Man is handed over into the hands of those who miss the mark.THE THREAD
And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord LORD, why have you ever crossed this people over the Jordan, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to wipe us out? If only we had been content, and settled across the Jordan!Joshua names the possibility of being given into the Amorites’ hand; 1 Samuel uses the same root and hand-language to state that transfer as the coming outcome. The shared wording lets “deliver” be heard as placement under another’s power.
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