What Does 1 Samuel 3:13 Mean?
For I have set before him that I will judge his house for ages, for the crookedness he has known, because his sons made themselves light, and he did not hold them back.
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
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.THE KEY
The judgment reaches beyond the sons’ conduct to the knowing failure to restrain it.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks where harm is known and the power to restrain it is present. It names the sons’ degrading conduct and their father’s failure to check it, placing the whole house under judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that responsibility ends where one’s own hands stop: knowing about harm and failing to restrain it also carries weight.
THE ROOT
כהה
kahah
GROWS FROM
כהה
kahah
To grow dim or weak; in this usage, to restrain or rebuke.
“did not hold them back” in this verse is kahah. The verb translated “restrained” also carries the sense of dimming or weakening. The verse frames Eli’s failure as leaving his sons’ conduct unchecked, allowing its force to continue.
ALSO GROWS
kahah: To grow dim or weak.
כָּהָה
This verb’s sense of diminished force adds depth to the idea of restraining what is happening.
kehéh: Dim or faint.
כֵּהֶה
The related adjective echoes the root’s language of dimness, linking restraint with checking the force of an action.
מקללים
meqallelim
GROWS FROM
קלל
qalal
To be light or slight; in another form, to curse or treat with contempt.
“made themselves light” in this verse is meqallelim. The word rendered “vile” comes from a root that can mean making light of something and also cursing. The sons’ conduct is not merely described as bad; the root gives it the force of contempt and self-cursing.
ALSO GROWS
qal: Light or slight.
קַל
This branch shows the root’s concrete sense of treating something as light or insignificant.
qelalah: A curse.
קְלָלָה
This branch reveals the curse-bearing shade beneath the sons’ contemptible conduct.
ידע
yada
GROWS FROM
ידע
yada
To know or perceive through encounter.
“has known” in this verse is yada. ידע is knowing formed through encounter, not merely having information. The verse makes Eli’s knowledge of his sons’ conduct part of the charge: the harm is known, yet it is not restrained.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun carries the same root into the state of knowing that the verse attributes to Eli.
maddaʿ: Knowledge or understanding.
מַדָּע
This related noun shows how the root extends from knowing by encounter to knowledge held in the mind.
THE PATTERN
Knowledge of harm carries responsibility when a person can warn against it or restrain it.
When I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to keep his living soul alive; that same wicked man shall die in his crookedness; but his blood I will seek from your hand.If you say, "Look, we did not know this," does not the one who weighs hearts separate it out? Does not the one who guards your living soul know it? Will he not return to each man according to his deed?So to the one who has seen the beautiful thing to do, and does not do it, falling short is his.THE THREAD
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall guard the way of the LORD, to make alignment and judgment, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham the word he has spoken concerning him.The verb rendered “know” comes from the same ידע root as the knowledge Eli possesses. Here that knowing is joined to the shaping of a household, showing its weight when the household’s conduct is at stake.
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