What Does 1 Samuel 6:20 Mean?
And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this set-apart LORD God? And to whom shall he go up from us?
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 the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?THE KEY
Here holiness is a presence before which the people ask both whether anyone can remain standing and who can take it away from them.
THE MEANING
When the LORD’s presence feels unbearable, the verse gives you its raw questions: who can remain standing before him, and to whom can he go from you? The wish for distance stands beside the recognition of his set-apartness.
THE ROOT
לַעֲמֹד
la'amod
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
Stand, remain, take one’s position
“stand” in this verse is la'amod. The question asks whether anyone can hold a place before this presence, not merely whether they can approach it. The root carries the possibility of remaining there, which makes the people’s question about standing feel like a question of endurance.
ALSO GROWS
ʿammūd: Pillar, column
עַמּוּד
A pillar makes standing visible as something that holds its place, giving weight to the question of who can remain before the LORD.
maʿămād: Standing, station, position
מַעֲמָד
This branch makes standing a place one holds, illuminating the verse’s question about who can remain in the LORD’s presence.
הַקָּדוֹשׁ
ha-qādôsh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart, consecrated
“set-apart” in this verse is ha-qādôsh. The word names the LORD as set apart from what can be handled as ordinary. Here that set-apartness is felt as a disturbing question: who can stand before him, and who can receive him away from them?
ALSO GROWS
qōdesh: Set-apartness; a sacred thing or place
קֹדֶשׁ
This branch names the quality the verse attaches to the LORD, a set-apartness that makes the question of standing before him urgent.
miqdāsh: Sanctuary, set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch gives set-apartness a place, echoing the verse’s concern with being before the LORD.
THE PATTERN
Encounter with the set-apart presence exposes the limits of what human beings can bear or conceal.
And he said, You cannot see my face, for no man will see me and live.Then I said, Woe is me! I am cut off, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I settle in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.For our God is a fire that devours.THE THREAD
At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to lift the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD and minister to him, and to bless in his nature, to this day.Both verses use עָמַד (ʿāmad, stand or remain) for standing before the LORD. First Samuel voices the fear of who can hold that place; Deuteronomy names the Levites as set apart to stand there in service, so the same root carries both exposure and a station of service.
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