What Does 1 Samuel 3:11 Mean?
And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a deed in Israel, at which both ears of everyone who hears it will ring.
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 the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls God’s act a davar, a word and a thing, and says it will ring through every ear, making the announcement itself bodily.
THE MEANING
The action remains unnamed in this line; its reach does not. The LORD’s announced act enters the reader’s hearing with enough force to make the ears ring, and no one who hears it remains untouched. What is called a “thing” is already a word becoming an event.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A word from God is only information that can be heard without consequence; this verse presents hearing as something that reaches the body.
THE ROOT
תְּצִלֶּנָה
tetzillena
GROWS FROM
צלל
To ring, quiver, or tingle.
“ring” in this verse is tetzillena. The verb for the ears’ response belongs to the sound-family of the ringing cymbal. “Tingle” is more than a slight shiver: the announcement resounds in the listener, like sound striking the ears.
ALSO GROWS
tsiltsal: Cymbal; a ringing instrument.
צִלְצֵל
This related word gives the ears’ “tingling” the quality of a sound that rings out.
tetzillena: They will ring or tingle, as in 2 Kings 21:12 and Jeremiah 19:3.
תְּצִלֶּנָה
The same verb recurs in warnings whose force is heard as a ringing in the ears.
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or utter; davar can mean a word, matter, or thing.
“deed” in this verse is davar. The noun translated “thing” is davar, which also means “word.” Hebrew lets the announced word and the happening it names occupy the same expression, so the speech already carries the event within it.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: To speak or utter.
דִּבֵּר
The coming “thing” is framed by the same root that names speaking.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
This branch preserves the root’s range: what is spoken can also be the matter or event being spoken of.
שֹׁמְעוֹ
shom'o
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“heareth” in this verse is shom'o. The Hebrew word for hearing can carry the sense of listening and heeding, not merely sound reaching the ear. Here, the reception of the announcement becomes a felt ringing in every hearer.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form shows that hearing in Hebrew can include a response, not just passive reception.
shemu'ah: A report or news, something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root can name both the act of hearing and the report that reaches the hearer.
THE PATTERN
A word that announces a weighty act does not remain information; its force is felt by those who hear it.
Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel, Look, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will ring.And say, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and those who settle in Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring evil upon this place; everyone who hears it, his ears will ring.When they heard this, they were pierced in the heart, and said to Peter and to the rest of the sent ones, Men and brothers, what shall we do?THE THREAD
And say, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and those who settle in Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring evil upon this place; everyone who hears it, his ears will ring.Jeremiah uses the same rare verb for ears that ring or tingle. The shared root links the word of the LORD with a sound that lands in the listener’s body.
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