What Does 1 Samuel 31:8 Mean?

And it came to be on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the pierced, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.

1 Samuel 31:8 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.

THE KEY

The Hebrew root for stripping also describes a raid, so the invasion reaches even the bodies left behind.

THE MEANING

Violence continues after death: the Philistines come to strip the slain, and Saul and his sons lie exposed on Gilboa. The victors now control what happens to their bodies.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that death ends an enemy’s reach over the body: here the dead are still exposed to the victors’ actions.

THE ROOT

לְפַשֵּׁט

lefashet

GROWS FROM

פשט

To strip off; also to spread into or raid a place.

“strip the pierced” in this verse is lefashet. The same root describes stripping and raiding a land, as when the Philistines invade in 1 Samuel 23:27. Here, the invasion continues over the dead bodies, where the victors take away their covering.

ALSO GROWS

vayyaphshitu: They stripped Joseph of his coat (Genesis 37:23).

וַיַּפְשִׁיטוּ

The same root makes the removal of a garment part of the violence done to Joseph.

pāštû: They raided or invaded the land (1 Samuel 23:27).

פָּשְׁטוּ

The root links the Philistines’ incursion across the land with their stripping of the slain.

THE PATTERN

Violence extends beyond the blow when a defeated person is stripped of covering or their defeat is made public.

And it came to pass, when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him.

Genesis 37:23 · SDVJoseph’s brothers strip away his garment as their violence against him unfolds.

Do not tell it in Gath, do not bring good news into the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised leap.

2 Samuel 1:20 · SDVThe public telling of Saul’s defeat would extend the victors’ triumph beyond the battlefield.

And Jesus took it up and said, A certain man was stepping down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who stripped him of his clothing and laid blows on him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

Luke 10:30 · SDVThe thieves strip a wounded man, making the attack reach both his body and his covering.

THE THREAD

But a messenger came to Saul, saying, Hurry, and come; for the Philistines have spread out over the land.

1 Samuel 23:27 · SDV

The same root appears when Saul hears that the Philistines are raiding the land. Here its reach narrows from the invading force to the dead bodies left behind: the raid continues as stripping.

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