What Does 1 Samuel 28:20 Mean?
Then Saul fell at once upon the earth with his whole stature, and was greatly afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.
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 Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.THE KEY
The Hebrew דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) keeps speech and consequence close: Samuel’s words terrify Saul, while a night without bread leaves him with no strength.
THE MEANING
When words terrify, fear can register in the body as collapse; going a day and a night without food strips strength too. The verse holds both experiences in one body, while keeping their causes distinct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that collapse is simply weakness of will: terror and prolonged hunger both bear directly on the body here.
THE ROOT
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
D-B-R
Speech; the noun דָּבָר (davar) can mean a word, matter, or thing.
The noun דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) keeps speech and an event close together. Samuel’s words do not remain abstract in the verse: their impact appears in Saul’s body on the ground.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The word family holds spoken language and what is happening together, fitting a verse where words have an immediate bodily effect.
dibber: Spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch names speech in action, the force of Samuel’s words in the scene.
לֶחֶם
lechem
GROWS FROM
ל־ח־ם
L-Ḥ-M
The consonants ל־ח־ם form the word for bread; the same consonants also appear in words for fighting and war.
The consonant sequence connects sustenance and struggle in sound. This is an echo between words, not proof that bread and fighting share a historical derivation.
ALSO GROWS
lechem: Bread, food.
לֶחֶם
The bread Saul has not eaten marks the physical depletion named in the verse.
lacham: Fight, wage war.
לָחַם
The shared consonants bring struggle into audible relation with the missing food.
milchamah: Battle, war.
מִלְחָמָה
This related sound-shape lets the language place sustenance beside struggle without making them identical.
וַיִּרָא
vayyira
GROWS FROM
י־ר־א
Y-R-ʾ
Fear, dread, or reverence; the object shapes the shade of meaning.
“greatly afraid” in this verse is vayyira. This word family spans dread and awe, while the object sets its register. Here Saul fears Samuel’s words, so the verse describes terror; the same root can carry reverence when God is the one feared.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear or revere.
יָרֵא
This verbal form names the state Saul is in as he hears Samuel’s words.
yirah: Fear, awe, or reverence.
יִרְאָה
The noun shows how one Hebrew root can hold shades that English often separates.
THE PATTERN
Inner distress shows itself in the body through lost appetite, faintness, tears, or sleep.
My heart is struck and dries like grass, for I forget to eat my bread.And the record-keepers shall speak yet again to the people, and they shall say, Who is the man who is fearful and soft of heart? Let him go and turn back to his house, lest the hearts of his brothers melt like his own.And when he rose up from prayer, and came to his learners, he found them sleeping for sorrow,THE THREAD
My heart is struck and dries like grass, for I forget to eat my bread.The same Hebrew noun, לֶחֶם (lechem, bread), names what Saul has gone without and what the speaker here forgets to eat. Both verses place distress beside the body’s need for food.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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