What Does 1 Samuel 3:15 Mean?
And Samuel lay until morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel feared to set the vision before Eli.
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 Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision.THE KEY
Samuel has already seen the vision; the fear lives at the threshold where what is seen must be brought before Eli.
THE MEANING
A clear perception does not make its telling painless. You can continue the familiar work, opening the doors, while fearing the moment you place what you have seen before the person it concerns.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that seeing clearly means you will feel fearless when you speak.
THE ROOT
הַגִּיד
haggîd
GROWS FROM
נגד
To make known or declare; the root also carries the sense of being in front or in view.
The Hebrew holds telling together with bringing something into view. Samuel’s fear is at the point where the vision he has seen must be set before Eli.
ALSO GROWS
neged: Before, in front of, or opposite.
נֶגֶד
The shared root lets the act of telling echo the act of placing the vision before Eli.
maggid: One who tells or declares.
מַגִּיד
This branch names the one who makes something known, the role Samuel is afraid to take up.
הַמַּרְאָה
hamar'eh
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see or perceive.
The vision is something seen, not something Samuel invents. The verse holds the act of seeing and the appearance seen within one root, while showing that perception can be clear before its telling feels easy.
ALSO GROWS
re'iyah: Sight or seeing.
רְאִיָּה
It names the act through which the vision comes to Samuel.
ro'eh: A seer; one who sees.
רֹאֶה
This branch connects Samuel’s received vision with the person who perceives it.
יָרֵא
yare
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or stand in awe.
“feared” in this verse is yare. The root can carry awe or fear, and its object shapes the sense. Here Samuel fears Eli, so the word holds the apprehension of bringing difficult truth before another person.
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
It names the state Samuel feels as he faces the prospect of telling Eli.
mora: Dread or terror.
מוֹרָא
This branch shows the root’s capacity to express the force of fear, not only reverence.
THE PATTERN
A message received presses toward being spoken, even when its disclosure brings fear.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his nature. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who will not prophesy?For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
And Samuel set before him every word, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD. Let him do what is good in his eyes.The verb translated “shew” here and “told” there comes from נגד (n-g-d), the root of making known. Verse 18 shows the feared crossing: Samuel sets the whole vision before Eli and withholds nothing.
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