What Does 1 Samuel 28:25 Mean?
And she drew it near before Saul and before his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that 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
And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the food is “brought near”: before the company leaves into the night, provision crosses the distance between them.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a small interval between eating and departure: food comes near, people eat, and then they leave in the night. Nourishment remains part of your life even when the way ahead is still dark.
THE ROOT
וַתַּקְרֵב
vattaqrev
GROWS FROM
קָרַב
Q-R-B
To draw near or bring near; here, she brings the food near to Saul and his servants.
“drew it near” in this verse is vattaqrev. English makes this sound like simply setting food before someone, while the Hebrew speaks in the language of nearness. That same root appears in words for what is near and for something brought near, so the meal carries a quiet sense of provision within reach.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near, nearby.
קָרוֹב
This branch makes the physical nearness in the meal explicit: the food is brought within reach.
korban: An offering; something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The shared root shows how Hebrew can name an offering through the act of bringing near, though this meal is not called an offering.
וַיָּקֻמוּ
wayyaqumu
GROWS FROM
קוּם
Q-W-M
To rise or stand.
“rose up” in this verse is wayyaqumu. The word marks the body’s literal rising after the meal, the hinge between eating and leaving. Its family also connects standing with a place and with establishing something, giving this ordinary movement a wider language of taking one’s place.
ALSO GROWS
maqom: Place.
מָקוֹם
This related word connects standing with the place where one stands.
heqim: To establish or set up; literally, to cause to stand.
הֵקִים
The causative form extends the root’s image of standing into the act of setting something in place.
THE PATTERN
Provision can sustain the body in danger or departure before the way ahead becomes clear.
And he rose, and ate and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.Then they all took heart, and they also took food.THE THREAD
And he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, In the morning the LORD will know who is his, and who is set apart, and will bring him near. The one he chooses, he will bring near to himself.The food “brought near” to Saul uses the root qarab, which appears here for being “caused to come near.” English separates a meal set within reach from the language of access, while Hebrew lets both carry the sound of nearness.
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