What Does 1 Samuel 30:31 Mean?
And to those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men walked about.
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 Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.THE KEY
Here, the path itself becomes a map of belonging: provision reaches the places David and his men have moved through.
THE MEANING
The verse places provision on a map: it reaches Hebron and every place David and his men go about. What is gathered in one place can flow along a lived path of connection, keeping particular communities within the circle of its reach.
THE ROOT
הִתְהַלֶּךְ
hithallēkh
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
go, walk, proceed
“walked about” in this verse is hithallēkh. The KJV’s “haunt” here means to go about repeatedly. The Hebrew root keeps the movement visible: the destinations are tied to the route David and his men actually travel.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: go, walk
הָלַךְ
This is the basic motion behind the verse’s description of the places David and his men go.
holekh: one who goes, a walker
הוֹלֵךְ
The route belongs to people in motion; the list follows where they have gone.
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥevron
GROWS FROM
חבר
ḥ-b-r
join, associate, be connected
Hebron’s name is traditionally connected with the root meaning “join” or “associate.” Beside the other places on David’s route, the name evokes a geography of connection: a joined community and the wider network of places linked to his path.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāvar: join, associate
חָבַר
The root frames connection as something formed between people or groups.
ḥāver: companion, associate, friend
חָבֵר
This branch gives the root’s joining a personal shape, echoing the relationships carried along a route.
מְקֹמוֹת
meqomot
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
rise, stand
“places” in this verse is meqomot. The Hebrew word for “place” is built from a root meaning “stand” or “rise.” The list points to particular ground where people stand and meet, rather than an abstract, faceless territory.
ALSO GROWS
qam: rose, stood
קָם
This is the basic standing or rising contained in the word for place.
heqim: raise, establish, set up
הֵקִים
The related form makes the sense of a place as established ground more visible.
THE PATTERN
Provision travels through relationships and reaches the people and places that form a lived path.
And she carried it and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gathered, and she brought out and gave to her what she had left over after being full.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.and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.THE THREAD
And I was with you wherever you walked, and I cut off all your enemies from your face, and I made for you a great name, like the name of the great men who are in the earth.“Wentest” carries the same Hebrew root, הלך (halakh), “to go,” as the movement in this verse. The route that appears here as a map of places is also named as a path accompanied at every turn.
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