What Does 1 Samuel 31:6 Mean?
So Saul died, and his three sons, and the one who lifted up his weapons, and all his men, together on that day.
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
So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for Saul’s sons shares its root with “build,” so his death is narrated alongside the lives carrying his household forward.
THE MEANING
You see Saul’s end held with the end of his three sons, his armour-bearer, and all his men in one day. The verse gathers kingship, kinship, service, and the men around him into a shared fate. Its final word, “together,” keeps none of those roles outside the frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that a ruler’s death belongs to him alone: it names his sons, armour-bearer, and men in the same day’s ending.
THE ROOT
בָּנָיו
banav
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, construct, establish.
The word translated “sons” shares the root בנה, “to build.” That does not make the sons literal builders; it places them in the word-family of building, giving the list a resonance of household continuity as Saul’s three sons fall with him.
ALSO GROWS
banah: To build or construct.
בָּנָה
This is the root verb shared with the word for “sons,” linking the family term with building.
ben: Son.
בֵּן
This is the singular form in the same word-family, naming a son as part of a household’s continuation.
binyan: Building or structure.
בִּנְיָן
This branch makes the root’s building sense explicit beside the word for Saul’s sons.
יַחְדָּו
yachdav
GROWS FROM
יחד
Be joined or united; togetherness.
“together on that day” in this verse is yachdav. Here yachdav gathers every named rank into one shared fate. The same word-family yields yachid, “only” or “solitary,” holding togetherness and aloneness in related forms, an echo beneath the verse’s closing word.
ALSO GROWS
yachad: To join or unite; together.
יָחַד
This is the root form behind the word that gathers Saul’s circle into one event.
yachid: Only, solitary, unique.
יָחִיד
This related form shows the root-family’s connection to being one or set apart.
נֹשֵׂא כֵלָיו
nose kelav
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, bear.
“the one who lifted up his weapons” in this verse is nose kelav. The Hebrew phrase names the armour-bearer through an action: נֹשֵׂא, “carrying,” followed by “his gear.” The person whose role is to carry Saul’s equipment is included in the same ending as Saul.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This is the verb expressed in the armour-bearer’s role.
massa: A load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
This related word makes the language of carrying and what is carried visible.
nasi: A prince or leader; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
The same root-family can name both a bearer and a person raised to leadership.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can show a death reaching beyond one person to gather the people bound to them into a shared end.
Saul and Jonathan were beloved and sweet in their lives, and in their death they were not parted. They were lighter than eagles; they were stronger than lions.And look, a great breath came from beyond the wilderness, and grasped the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they died; and I alone have slipped away to tell you.At once she fell at his feet and breathed out her living soul. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, they buried her beside her husband.THE THREAD
And the land could not carry them, that they might settle together; for their gathered goods were great, so that they could not settle together.Genesis uses the same Hebrew word יַחְדָּו (yachdav, “together”) for Abram and Lot’s households. There, togetherness strains against the land’s capacity; here, the word gathers Saul’s circle into a shared end.
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