What Does 1 Samuel 30:29 Mean?
And to those who were in Rachal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of the Kenites,
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 to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites,THE KEY
The list turns compassion from an invisible quality into provision moving toward named communities.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps particular communities in view: provision reaches people in actual places, not an abstract crowd. The Jerahmeelites’ name carries “May God show compassion,” so compassion meets the reader as care that reaches particular lives and communities.
THE ROOT
יְרַחְמְאֵלִים
Yeraḥmeʾelîm
GROWS FROM
רחם
To show compassion or tender care.
“Jerahmeelites” in this verse is Yeraḥmeʾelîm. The name Jerahmeel is commonly understood as “May God show compassion,” carrying the root רחם (r-ḥ-m, to show compassion). That same root links compassion with the womb, revealing care as something that holds and reaches life; here, the named communities receive a share.
ALSO GROWS
raḥamim: Compassion or tender care.
רַחֲמִים
This is the same root within the name Jerahmeelites, making their name resonate with care expressed through provision.
reḥem: Womb.
רֶחֶם
The shared root joins compassion with womb imagery: care that holds and protects life.
raḥum: Compassionate, full of tender care.
רַחוּם
This form names the quality carried in the Jerahmeelites’ name and gives the verse’s distribution a personal dimension.
THE PATTERN
Provision received after deliverance keeps moving outward until named communities receive a share.
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.and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.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.THE THREAD
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will call out the name of the LORD before you. I will favor whom I favor, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.Jerahmeel is commonly understood as “May God show compassion,” from רחם (r-ḥ-m, to show compassion); the same root appears in Exodus as רִחַמְתִּי (riḥamti, I will show compassion). That shared seed lets the named recipients resonate with compassion expressed through the passage’s movement of provision.
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