What Does 1 Samuel 4:6 Mean?
And when the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, they said, What is the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they perceived that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp.
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 Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp.THE KEY
The cry carries enough meaning that the Philistines hear more than noise: they recognize that the ark of the LORD has entered the camp.
THE MEANING
You hear a sound before you see what it announces; sometimes a cry carries the identity of an arrival. The verse moves from hearing to recognition: the Philistines hear the great shout and know the ark of the LORD has entered the camp.
THE ROOT
תְּרוּעָה
teru'ah
GROWS FROM
רוע
To raise a shout or cry aloud; the cry can serve as an alarm or an acclamation.
“shout” in this verse is teru'ah. The root opens “noise” into a signal: this is a recognizable cry, not just volume. Here, its sound lets the Philistines identify what has arrived in the camp.
ALSO GROWS
ruaʿ: To shout or raise a cry.
רוּעַ
This verb names the action behind the noun teru’ah: the sound is made publicly and can carry a message.
hari'u: Shout aloud in acclamation.
הָרִיעוּ
This form appears in calls to praise; the same root can carry acclamation as well as alarm, while the hearers here recognize the ark through the cry.
וַיֵּדְעוּ
wayyēdeʿû
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive, or recognize.
The Hebrew says they “knew” or “perceived.” The sound moves them from hearing to recognition: they identify the ark’s arrival from the cry.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun makes the root’s knowing sense visible in the shift from an unfamiliar sound to recognized meaning.
hodi'a: To make known or inform.
הוֹדִיעַ
The causative form shows knowledge being conveyed; here, the shout gives the hearers a sign from which they recognize the ark.
THE PATTERN
An audible sign can announce an arrival and make its significance recognizable before it is seen.
And on the third day, in the morning, there were thunders and flashes, and a heavy cloud upon the mount, and the sound of the ram's horn was very strong, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.And it came to be, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one voice heard in praising and in extending the hands to the LORD; and when they lifted their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of song, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; his faithful love is for the ages. Then the house was filled with a cloud, the house of the LORD.For the Lord himself, with a shout of command, with the voice of the chief messenger, and with the trumpet of God, will step down from heaven, and the dead in the Anointed One will rise first.THE THREAD
God rises with a shout; the LORD with the sound of a ram's horn.Psalm 47:5 uses the same Hebrew word, תְּרוּעָה (teru’ah, a shout or acclamation). There, a teru’ah accompanies God’s ascent; here, the Philistines hear it and recognize the ark’s arrival.
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