What Does 1 Samuel 30:20 Mean?
And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before that other livestock, and they said, This is David's plunder.
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 David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “spoil” holds both the act of plundering and the goods taken, making the conflict visible in what David claims.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you where a hard-won gain becomes visible: flocks and herds stand in front of you, no longer an abstraction. “David’s spoil” names the claimant and keeps ownership attached to the conflict that produced the gain.
THE ROOT
שָׁלָל
shalal
GROWS FROM
שָׁלַל
shalal
to strip or plunder; to take as spoil
“plunder” in this verse is shalal. The noun names the goods taken, while the verb names the stripping and taking that produce them. The English word “spoil” keeps the result but can hide the taking inside it.
ALSO GROWS
shalal: to plunder or strip away
שָׁלַל
This is the act contained within the “spoil” David claims.
shalal: booty or captured goods
שָׁלָל
This is the material result made visible in the flocks and herds.
דָּוִד
Dawid
GROWS FROM
דּוֹד
dod
beloved; the root also names a close kinsman
David’s name carries the sense “beloved,” so “David’s spoil” marks the goods with the name and nature of the one who claims them. The verse makes the claim personal rather than leaving the animals as an anonymous prize.
ALSO GROWS
dod: beloved; close kinsman
דּוֹד
This root meaning is carried into the name David.
Dawid: David; the beloved
דָּוִד
The name attached to the spoil makes its claimant explicit.
מִקְנֶה
miqneh
GROWS FROM
קנה
qanah
to acquire or possess
The Hebrew term for the cattle is related to acquiring and possession. What English presents as livestock alone is also framed as property brought into someone’s possession.
ALSO GROWS
qanah: to acquire or buy
קָנָה
The root names the act of gaining possession.
miqneh: livestock, property, or acquisition
מִקְנֶה
The word describes the animals as possessions that can be claimed.
THE PATTERN
After conflict, victory becomes visible through what is taken, claimed, shared, or publicly displayed.
Kings of the armies run, they run; and she who stays in the house divides the spoil.Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his living soul to death, and was counted with the rebels. He carried the falling short of many, and for the rebels he stepped in.Having stripped away the rulers and the authorities, he displayed them in the open, leading them in procession in him.THE THREAD
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his living soul to death, and was counted with the rebels. He carried the falling short of many, and for the rebels he stepped in.The Hebrew word rendered “spoil” here is the same word Isaiah uses for what is divided with the strong. It opens “David’s spoil” beyond the act of claiming: the same word can describe a gain passed into a shared portion.
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