What Does 1 Samuel 3:14 Mean?
And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the crookedness of Eli's house shall not be covered with sacrifice or offering for ages.
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 therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.THE KEY
The word “purged” rests on a Hebrew root meaning “cover,” so the oath says sacrifice cannot cover Eli’s house’s wrongdoing.
THE MEANING
You are brought before an oath concerning Eli’s house: its wrongdoing cannot be covered by sacrifice or offering through the ages. The verse leaves this verdict in force even when a ritual is offered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sacrifice can automatically cover wrongdoing or buy release from every verdict; here, the oath declares that it cannot.
THE ROOT
יִתְכַּפֵּר
yitkappēr
GROWS FROM
כפר
Kāphar means “to cover”; the root carries the sense of covering.
The verb יִתְכַּפֵּר (yitkappēr, “be covered” or “be purged”) comes from כפר (kāphar, “cover”). The verse’s force is that sacrifice and offering cannot provide that covering for Eli’s house.
ALSO GROWS
kippurim: Coverings; the word in Yom Kippur, commonly rendered “Day of Atonement.”
כִּפֻּרִים
The shared root keeps the sense of covering present in ritual language, sharpening the verse’s claim that sacrifice and offering cannot cover this wrongdoing.
kappōret: The cover of the ark, traditionally called the mercy seat.
כַּפֹּרֶת
This word names a literal cover in the sanctuary; the same root here makes the denied covering concrete.
THE PATTERN
Sacrifice cannot substitute for what the text declares remains beyond its power.
And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.For you do not delight in the slaughtered offering, else I would give it; the rising offering you do not receive.For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats could lift away shortcomings.THE THREAD
But he, full of compassion, covers their crookedness and does not ruin them. Many times he turns back the burning of his anger and does not rouse all his heat.Psalm 78:38 uses the same Hebrew root, כפר (kāphar, “cover”), in the word translated “forgave.” There, the covering of wrongdoing is attributed to compassion; here, the oath declares that sacrifice and offering will not cover Eli’s house.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us