What Does 1 Samuel 29:10 Mean?
And now rise up early in the morning with the servants of your master, who have come with you, and as soon as you are up early in the morning and have light, go your way.
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
Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with thy master’s servants that are come with thee: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart.THE KEY
Departure comes after the light appears: the way forward becomes visible before the leaving begins.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader a sequence for departure now: rise, wait until there is light, then go. Light is named as the condition that makes the next step visible.
THE ROOT
אוֹר
ʾor
GROWS FROM
א־ו־ר
To be light or shine; light.
The Hebrew says there is light “for you” before the command to go. The same root names both light itself and the act of shining, so light is more than a backdrop here: it is what makes departure possible to see.
ALSO GROWS
māʾōr: Luminary; a body or source of light.
מָאוֹר
This branch shows light as something that can be carried or borne into view, not only an abstract condition.
hēʾîr: To shine or illuminate.
הֵאִיר
This verb makes light an event. In this verse, light arrives before movement, marking when the departure can begin.
THE PATTERN
Light marks when movement can begin and where the way leads.
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to shine for them; to go by day and night.Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.Then Jesus said to them, Still a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness catch you, for the one who walks in darkness does not know where he goes.THE THREAD
Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.“Light” in this verse is אוֹר (ʾor), the same Hebrew word in the path-light of 1 Samuel 29:10. Psalm 119 makes explicit what the departure command leaves implicit: light marks the way that can be walked.
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