What Does 1 Samuel 30:28 Mean?

And to those who were in Aroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa,

1 Samuel 30:28 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa,

THE KEY

The verse turns provision into a map, naming the communities where it reaches people.

THE MEANING

The verse keeps its attention on particular places: Aroer, Siphmoth, and Eshtemoa. In the surrounding passage, these names mark where shared provision travels, making its reach specific rather than abstract.

THE ROOT

אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ

ʾEštəmōaʿ

GROWS FROM

שמע

Hear, listen, respond; the place-name is commonly associated with hearing.

Eshtemoa carries an echo of ⁨שָׁמַע⁩, hearing. In this list, that hearing-shaped name belongs to a real destination along the route of provision.

ALSO GROWS

shama: Hear, listen, respond.

שָׁמַע

This verb makes the name’s hearing association audible and keeps listening joined to response.

shemuah: A report or tidings.

שְׁמוּעָה

This branch shows hearing extending into what is heard and carried onward, like provision moving through the named places.

THE PATTERN

Provision becomes visible as it reaches particular people and places.

For the one in want shall never be gone from the midst of the land. Therefore I command you, saying, "You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to the one in want and to the bowed down, in your land."

Deuteronomy 15:11 · SDVThe open hand gives provision a direction: toward people present in specific places.

and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.

Acts 4:35 · SDVThe shared goods are carried onward and distributed according to the needs of particular people.

But through evenness, that in this present season your overflow may fill their lack, and their overflow may fill your lack, that there may be evenness.

2 Corinthians 8:14 · SDVWhat one community has in abundance becomes provision where another community has need.

THE THREAD

And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Look, a blessing for you from the plunder of the enemies of the LORD.

1 Samuel 30:26 · SDV

This verse names communities within the route of the present described just before it. The list shows provision traveling outward until it has actual destinations.

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