What Does 1 Samuel 30:11 Mean?
And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he ate; and they made him drink of the waters.
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 they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water;THE KEY
The man marked by constriction receives bread and water before anyone asks him to explain himself.
THE MEANING
A person is met at the point of depletion, and food and water arrive before his story is required. Provision makes room for speech and relationship to return. The movement is from constriction toward room to live.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You have to explain yourself or prove you deserve care before you can receive it.
THE ROOT
מִצְרִי
Mitzri
GROWS FROM
צ-ר-ר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or make narrow.
Mitzri (מִצְרִי, Mitzri, Egyptian) is tied to Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, Mitzrayim, Egypt, the two narrows), heard through tsar (צָר, tsar, narrow). The verse places a person marked by constriction before bread and water: life opens through receiving what sustains him.
ALSO GROWS
Mitzrayim: Egypt; the two narrows, a place of constriction.
מִצְרַיִם
The Egyptian is identified with the name of the constricting place, and the scene answers that narrowing with provision.
tsarah: Distress, trouble, a narrowed state.
צָרָה
This branch names the condition the scene evokes; food and water meet need at its most immediate.
tsar: Narrow; also an adversary or one who presses in.
צָר
The same sound can name both narrowness and opposition, while the verse puts care before any boundary of conflict.
THE PATTERN
In the face of conflict, immediate human need is answered with sustenance.
And he answered, You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.If the one who hates you hungers, feed him bread; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink.So if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink, for by doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head.THE THREAD
If the one who hates you hungers, feed him bread; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink.The Hebrew repeats the same words, לֶחֶם (lechem, bread) and מַיִם (mayim, water), paired in this scene. Proverbs makes the provision’s reach explicit: it crosses the line of enmity.
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