What Does 1 Samuel 31:11 Mean?
And when the settlers of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul;
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 when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “heard” also gives “report,” so the news of Saul’s suffering is already poised to become a response.
THE MEANING
When a report of violence reaches you, hearing makes another person’s suffering present rather than distant. This verse holds the moment before response; in the next verse, the people rise and travel through the night to bring Saul and his sons down. Here, hearing carries the possibility of becoming action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that hearing about harm is only receiving information gives way as the next verse shows this hearing becoming action.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ
vayishme'u
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
shama
Hear, listen, heed; hearing that is open to response.
“heard what” in this verse is vayishme'u. The root שׁמע (shama, “hear, listen, respond”) holds more than sound received. Its branch שְׁמוּעָה (shemu’ah, “report, tidings”) names the news itself from the same root, and the next verse shows the people’s hearing taking shape in action.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
This imperative shows that hearing can carry the sense of heeding, illuminating how the people’s reception of the report opens toward action.
shemu'ah: Report, tidings, news.
שְׁמוּעָה
The news and the act of hearing it share the same root, bringing the report of violence close to the people who receive it.
THE PATTERN
When suffering is truly heard, the report moves toward concrete response.
All the men of strength rose, and walked all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burned them there.And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.If a brother or sister is naked, and left without the nourishment of the day, And one of you says to them, Go in wholeness, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them what the body needs. What is the profit?THE THREAD
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.The Hebrew verb for “heard” here comes from שׁמע (shama, “hear, listen, respond”), the same root used when the LORD says he has heard the people’s cry. Exodus joins hearing with knowing their pain, then the next verse moves toward deliverance; 1 Samuel likewise lets hearing open into action.
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