What Does 1 Samuel 29:5 Mean?
Is this not David, of whom they sang back in the dances, saying, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
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
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?THE KEY
The song that makes David “his ten thousands” also turns his name into a threat.
THE MEANING
A refrain can outlive the moment it names and become the lens through which others judge you. Here, the song that exalts David also makes him seem dangerous; the same name carries affection and alarm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being praised guarantees welcome dissolves here: David’s remembered acclaim makes him feared, not accepted.
THE ROOT
יַעֲנוּ
yaʿănû
GROWS FROM
ענה
To answer or respond; here, to answer in song.
“sang back” in this verse is yaʿănû. The Hebrew describes a response sung to David, so the refrain is a shared act, not just a line about him. Once repeated, that answer gives his name a force that changes how others receive him.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānâ: To answer or respond.
עָנָה
The verse’s singing carries the sense of people answering together, making the refrain communal.
maʿăneh: A reply or answer.
מַעֲנֶה
This branch keeps the song connected to response: David’s public identity is shaped by what people keep saying back.
דָּוִד
Dāwîd
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; the name David carries the nature of the beloved.
The name linked with belovedness stands beside a refrain measuring David by the thousands he has slain. The song’s praise does not erase its violence; it makes his name carry both affection and alarm.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: A beloved one or close relative.
דּוֹד
This branch reveals the affection carried in David’s name, even as the verse shows that acclaim can make him unwelcome.
dōdîm: Love or expressions of affection.
דּוֹדִים
The related word makes the contrast sharper: the name of the beloved is spoken through a song that also evokes lethal power.
THE PATTERN
A repeated public refrain can shape a person’s name into a force that determines how others receive them.
And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.Death and life are in the hand of the tongue, and those who love it eat its fruit.For by your words you will be made aligned, and by your words you will be condemned.THE THREAD
And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.Both verses use the Hebrew root ענה (ʿānâ, answer or respond) for the sung refrain. What begins as a shared answer that magnifies David’s name is repeated here as evidence that makes him seem dangerous.
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