What Does 1 Samuel 28:6 Mean?

And when Saul asked of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.

1 Samuel 28:6 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.

THE KEY

The king whose Hebrew name means “asked-for” now asks, and every channel through which an answer might come is silent.

THE MEANING

Saul asks the LORD and receives no answer through dreams, Urim, or prophets. The verse holds the ache of seeking while every recognized route of response is silent for the one asking now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that asking guarantees an answer through a familiar channel: Saul asks, but none of the three named channels brings one.

THE ROOT

וַיִּשְׁאַל

vayish'al

GROWS FROM

שׁאל

to ask, request, or seek

The Hebrew verb for Saul’s enquiry shares its root with his name, Sha’ul, commonly understood as “asked-for.” The asked-for king is now the one asking, and the repeated root makes his unanswered request echo the story carried in his name.

ALSO GROWS

sha'al: to ask, request, or inquire

שָׁאַל

This is the verb’s root form: Saul’s act of enquiry is an act of asking.

Sha'ul: asked-for

שָׁאוּל

Saul’s name comes from the same root, linking the king Israel asked for with the king now asking the LORD.

THE PATTERN

Scripture names moments when a question or cry meets silence without hiding the absence of a response.

I cry out to you, and you do not answer me; I stand, and you gaze at me.

Job 30:20 · SDVThe speaker cries to God and describes the pain of receiving no response.

Then he questioned him with many words, but he answered him nothing.

Luke 23:9 · SDVMany questions are met with no spoken reply.

THE THREAD

And Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king.

1 Samuel 8:10 · SDV

In Hebrew, “asked” in 8:10 and “enquired” here come from ⁨שאל⁩ (sha’al), meaning to ask or request; Saul’s name, Sha’ul, carries the sense “asked-for.” The king Israel asked for is now the one asking the LORD, and the named channels bring no answer.

This reading is from Selah Verse.

You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.

Get Selah Verse

A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us