What Does 1 Samuel 31:5 Mean?
And when the bearer of his armour saw that Saul was dead, he too fell upon his sword, and died with him.
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 his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him.THE KEY
The armor-bearer’s fall repeats Saul’s own, making his death an echo of the death he has just witnessed.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a brutal sequence in plain sight: the armor-bearer sees Saul dead, falls on his own sword, and dies beside him. The Hebrew repeats the verb “fall” from Saul’s death, tying the two acts together without softening either one.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפֹּל
wayyippōl
GROWS FROM
נפל
to fall
“fell” in this verse is wayyippōl. The same verb describes Saul falling upon his sword in the verse immediately before this one. “Likewise” conveys the parallel in English, while the repeated Hebrew verb makes the armor-bearer’s fall an echo of Saul’s.
ALSO GROWS
nāphal: to fall or lie fallen
נָפַל
It is the verb used both for Saul’s fall and for the armor-bearer’s.
mappelet: a fall or ruin
מַפֶּלֶת
This noun from the same root carries falling into the sense of collapse or ruin.
מֵת
mēt
GROWS FROM
מות
to die
“died” in this verse is mēt. The verse uses forms of the same root for Saul’s state and the armor-bearer’s end: Saul is dead, and the armor-bearer dies with him. The word family links what he sees to what he does next.
ALSO GROWS
mēt: dead
מֵת
It describes Saul as the armor-bearer sees him.
māvet: death
מָוֶת
The noun names the same root action that the verse gives as the armor-bearer’s own death.
THE PATTERN
The Hebrew verb for falling can describe a fatal collapse or a fall from which another person lifts someone.
Then Saul said to the bearer of his armour, Draw your sword and pierce me with it, lest these uncircumcised come and pierce me, and deal with me as they please. But the bearer of his armour would not, for he feared greatly. So Saul took the sword and fell upon it.The LORD props up all who fall, and straightens all who are bent.For if they fall, the one raises up the one joined to him. But woe to the one who falls with no second to gird him.THE THREAD
Then Saul said to the bearer of his armour, Draw your sword and pierce me with it, lest these uncircumcised come and pierce me, and deal with me as they please. But the bearer of his armour would not, for he feared greatly. So Saul took the sword and fell upon it.The Hebrew verb וַיִּפֹּל (wayyippōl, “and he fell”) appears in both verses. Saul falls upon his sword; then the armor-bearer “falls too,” repeating the same root after seeing Saul dead.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us