What Does 1 Samuel 31:2 Mean?
And the Philistines clung close behind Saul and his sons, and they struck down Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of 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 the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, Saul’s sons.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for the Philistines’ pursuit is also used for cleaving: here, closeness becomes the grip that kills.
THE MEANING
The Philistines catch Saul and his sons, and their attack kills Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua. The verse names each son as the violence reaches the family. This pursuit closes in with lethal force.
THE ROOT
וַיַּדְבְּקוּ
wayyadbequ
GROWS FROM
דבק
To cling, stick fast, or cleave.
“clung close behind” in this verse is wayyadbequ. The word for the Philistines’ relentless pursuit carries the sense of clinging close. The root itself does not make that closeness loving: its character comes from who clings and what that grip does.
ALSO GROWS
dabaq: To cling, cleave, or hold fast.
דָּבַק
Genesis uses this root for a man cleaving to his wife, showing the intimacy the same word can carry.
deveqah: Clinging or cleaving; the form used of a feminine subject.
דָּבְקָה
Psalm 63:8 uses this form for a living soul clinging to God, a striking contrast with the Philistines’ deadly pursuit.
יְהוֹנָתָן
Yehonatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
Jonathan’s name carries the sense “YHWH has given.” The verse reports his killing without turning it into a metaphor; his name still holds the nature of a gift as it names the person taken.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This verb is embedded in Yehonatan’s name: “YHWH has given.”
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related word makes the giving carried in Jonathan’s name audible beside the verse’s stark report of his death.
THE PATTERN
Clinging takes its character from its direction: the same Hebrew root names covenantal attachment, loyal attachment, and a pursuit that kills.
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.And they lifted up their voice, and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.My living soul clings after you, and your right hand grasps me.THE THREAD
My living soul clings after you, and your right hand grasps me.The Hebrew verb behind “followeth hard after” is the same דבק (dabaq) verb translated “followed hard” here. In the Psalm, the speaker clings toward God and is upheld; in this battle, the Philistines’ clinging pursuit ends with three sons killed.
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