What Does 1 Samuel 4:5 Mean?
And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth roared.
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 ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.THE KEY
The Hebrew lets the cry outgrow the crowd: Israel raises a great shout, and then the earth itself resounds.
THE MEANING
A shared sign gathers many voices into one public cry, loud enough for the whole setting to seem to answer. The sound makes their expectation audible, but it does not establish what will follow.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A whole people shouting together means the victory they expect is already secured. The verses that follow overturn that equation: Israel is defeated, and the ark is captured.
THE ROOT
וַיָּרִעוּ
vayari'u
GROWS FROM
רוע
To raise a shout, cry aloud, or sound an alarm.
“shouted with a great shout” in this verse is vayari'u. The verb וַיָּרִעוּ (vayari’u, “they shouted”) and the noun תְּרוּעָה (teru’ah, “shout”) come from the same root: Israel is literally raising a shout with a shout. This root also names an alarm signal and a king’s acclamation, so the cry carries the force of a public signal, not just many voices making noise.
ALSO GROWS
vayari'u: They shouted; they raised a cry.
וַיָּרִעוּ
This verb in the verse shares its root with the noun that follows, echoing the action and the sound.
teru'ah: A shout or alarm signal; the noun translated “shout” here and “alarm” in Numbers 10:5.
תְּרוּעָה
As an alarm signal, the same word can direct a camp to move, showing that this cry can function as a public signal.
teru'at melekh: A king’s shout or acclamation, as in Numbers 23:21.
תְּרוּעַת מֶלֶךְ
The root also carries royal acclamation, giving this communal cry the sound of a public declaration without making its expected outcome certain.
THE PATTERN
A shared cry makes a community’s expectation audible across the place where it gathers.
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell beneath itself, so that the people climbed up into the city, every man straight ahead of his face, and they seized the city.He has not looked upon crookedness in Jacob, nor seen toil in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.The crowds that went before him, and those that followed, cried out, saying, Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the nature of the LORD. Hosanna in the highest!THE THREAD
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell beneath itself, so that the people climbed up into the city, every man straight ahead of his face, and they seized the city.Joshua uses the same Hebrew pairing for “a great shout,” including the verb-noun echo from this root. There the wall falls; in 1 Samuel’s continuation, the expected victory turns the other way, showing that a crowd’s cry does not command its outcome.
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