What Does 1 Samuel 6:9 Mean?
And see, if it goes up by the way of his own border to Beth-shemesh, then he has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall perceive that his hand did not touch us; it was a meeting that came upon 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 see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us.THE KEY
What the KJV calls “chance” is מִקְרֶה (miqreh, an occurrence that befalls), so the verse leaves the cause unresolved until the outcome is seen.
THE MEANING
When harm reaches you, its reality can be clear while its cause remains uncertain. Here the speakers hold two readings open, an intentional hand and an event that has befallen them, until the observed path gives them grounds to distinguish the two.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A painful event by itself does not prove that God has directly struck you; the verse separates what happened from the question of whose hand caused it.
THE ROOT
מִקְרֶה
miqreh
GROWS FROM
קרה
q-r-h (qārāh): to happen, meet, or befall
“meeting that came upon us” in this verse is miqreh. The word rendered “chance” grows from the language of what happens or befalls someone; the root names the occurrence without deciding its cause. That leaves the verse’s central question open: did a hand bring this harm, or did it simply come upon them?
ALSO GROWS
qārāh: To happen to or meet someone; to befall.
קָרָה
This verb is the seed of מִקְרֶה, showing that “chance” can carry the sense of an event that comes upon someone.
hiqərāh: To cause an event or encounter to happen.
הִקְרָה
This causative form makes agency explicit, sharpening the verse’s distinction between an event and the question of who brought it about.
וּרְאִיתֶם
urəʾitem
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h (rāʾāh): to see, look at, or perceive
“see” in this verse is urəʾitem. The speakers first watch the cows’ course, then say they will know what caused the harm. The sequence makes their judgment answerable to what can be seen.
ALSO GROWS
marʾeh: What is seen or appears.
מַרְאֶה
The cows’ route becomes the visible sign by which the speakers interpret what has happened.
rōʾeh: A person who sees or observes.
רֹאֶה
This branch keeps the observer in view: their claim about the unseen cause follows what they witness.
THE PATTERN
When the cause of harm is uncertain, competing explanations are tested against an observable outcome.
Look, I will set a fleece of shorn wool on the threshing floor, and if the dew is on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the land beside, then I will perceive that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.You will know them by their fruits. Do people gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?But if I do them, even if you do not trust me, lean your weight on the works, so that you may come to perceive, and keep on perceiving, that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.THE THREAD
All things come alike to all. There is one meeting for the aligned and for the wicked, for the good and for the clean and for the stained, for the one who slaughters and for the one who does not slaughter. As the good is, so is the one who misses the mark. The one who swears is like the one who fears an oath.The noun translated “event” here (מִקְרֶה, miqreh, an occurrence) and the verb “happeneth” (יִקְרֶה, yiqreh, happens) share the root קָרָה (qārāh, to happen or befall). The shared root names what occurs, while leaving the question of its cause open.
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