What Does 1 Samuel 3:9 Mean?
Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, Speak, LORD, for your servant hears and responds. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
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
Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.THE KEY
In Hebrew, “heareth” is שֹׁמֵעַ (shomeaʿ), from שָׁמַע (shamaʿ): hearing ready to respond, so Samuel’s answer begins before the message is known.
THE MEANING
This verse places the reader in the instant between a call and its answer: Samuel is ready to receive what is spoken. Hearing here is active relation, the servant attends to the voice so that speech can be answered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that hearing is passive or merely auditory; here, to hear is to be ready to respond.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵעַ
shomeaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen; in context, hear and respond.
“hears and responds” in this verse is shomeaʿ. Here שֹׁמֵעַ (shomeaʿ) names the servant as one who is listening, while this root can also describe hearing that results in obedience. The word makes the servant’s answer a posture of ready response, not merely the report that sound has reached him.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; attend and respond.
שְׁמַע
This imperative opens Deuteronomy 6:4, showing that hearing can name an attentive response to a voice.
shamaʿta: You heard; you obeyed.
שָׁמַעְתָּ
In Genesis 22:18, this form describes Abraham’s response to God’s voice, where hearing reaches beyond sound into action.
דַּבֵּר
dabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak, declare; the related noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
“Speak” in this verse is dabber. The speech root sets Samuel’s listening beside the LORD’s speaking: the verse is an exchange, not an abstract lesson about hearing. Because דָּבָר (davar) can mean both “word” and “matter,” speech is connected with what the listener attends to in life.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun shares the root of “Speak,” linking utterance with the matter being addressed.
dibber: He spoke; he declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verb form names the act Samuel is ready to receive.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, hearing a voice moves beyond sound into responsive relationship.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.The imperative “Hear” is שְׁמַע (shemaʿ), from the same root as “heareth” in Samuel’s reply. The root links Israel’s opening call to listen with Samuel’s readiness to receive and respond.
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