What Does 1 Samuel 29:7 Mean?
And now turn back, and go in wholeness, so that you do no harm in the eyes of the lords of the Philistines.
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 return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines.THE KEY
The verse places shalom (wholeness) over a politically enforced departure, so peaceful language and rejection coexist.
THE MEANING
You can be sent away under a word of wholeness while another person’s judgment still sets the terms of your welcome. The peace of this departure does not erase the exclusion; it names how you are being sent away. Calm words and rejection occupy the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A calm dismissal does not mean there is no rejection in it.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
to be whole or complete; to make whole
Shalom carries wholeness, not only quiet or the absence of conflict. Here David is sent away with a word of wholeness, though his welcome has been withdrawn.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the depth of “peace” audible: David is told to go in a condition of wholeness.
shillem: repay, make good, restore
שִׁלֵּם
The same root can describe making something complete or restoring what is due, linking wholeness with repair.
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
to turn back, return
“turn back” in this verse is shuv. The command is a literal return: David is sent back from the Philistine camp. In the same sentence, that change of direction is paired with shalom, making departure itself the scene where wholeness is named.
ALSO GROWS
shav: returned, turned back
שָׁב
This form keeps the root’s physical motion in view: David is to go back from where he came.
teshuvah: return, turning
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun presents return as a change of direction, echoing the verse’s explicit instruction to go back.
רָע
raʿ
GROWS FROM
רעע
to be bad or evil; to cause harm
“do no harm in the eyes of” in this verse is raʿ. The Hebrew phrase is literally “do no evil in the eyes” of the Philistine rulers; the KJV’s “displease” conveys the social consequence. Their gaze frames whether David is welcome, so the dismissal is political even as it is spoken with shalom.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: bad, evil, harmful
רַע
This word is the “evil” David is told not to do in the rulers’ eyes.
raʿāh: evil, adversity
רָעָה
This feminine form from the same root shows the wider range from wrongdoing to harm or misfortune.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses “go in peace” to name a departure whose condition is disclosed by what accompanies it, exclusion, covenant loyalty, or restored wholeness.
And Jonathan said to David, Go in wholeness, for we two have sworn in the nature of the LORD, saying, Let the LORD be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed for the ages. And he rose and went away, and Jonathan went into the city.And he said to the woman, The leaning of your full weight has delivered you; go into wholeness.THE THREAD
And Jonathan said to David, Go in wholeness, for we two have sworn in the nature of the LORD, saying, Let the LORD be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed for the ages. And he rose and went away, and Jonathan went into the city.Jonathan’s “Go in peace” also sends David away, but that departure carries a sworn bond between them. The shared word shalom opens two different scenes: one bounded by rulers’ suspicion, the other held together by covenant loyalty.
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