What Does 1 Samuel 8:15 Mean?
And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
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 he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.THE KEY
The tenth is claimed from the seed itself, so the ruler’s share reaches into what will produce the next harvest.
THE MEANING
When power claims a portion of what sustains your livelihood, this verse makes visible where that share goes: to the ruler’s officers and servants. Seed and vineyards hold the means of continued provision, so the claim reaches beyond what is already gathered. The governing structure is sustained by drawing from what the people produce.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that governing power is costless: its officers and servants are maintained from a measured portion of the people’s productive life.
THE ROOT
יַעְשֹׂר
yaʿśōr
GROWS FROM
עשר
ʿ-ś-r
Ten; as a verb, to take or assign a tenth.
“tenth” in this verse is yaʿśōr. The Hebrew verb means he will tithe your seed: the same עשר (ʿ-ś-r, ten) that names a number supplies the measured claim. The taking is a defined levy, one portion in ten, and the verse shows it being routed to the king’s own officers and servants.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeśer: The number ten.
עֶשֶׂר
The king’s claim is measured by the number embedded in the root.
maʿăśēr: A tenth portion.
מַעֲשֵׂר
This noun and the verb in the verse share the root, tying the king’s levy to the language of tithing.
זַרְעֲכֶם
zarʿakhem
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
To sow or scatter seed.
זֶרַע (zeraʿ) can mean seed or offspring, keeping the word connected to what carries life forward. Here the king’s share includes the source stock of future harvest, so the claim reaches into ongoing productivity, not only what has already been gathered.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed, and by extension offspring.
זֶרַע
The word holds together the crop’s source and the idea of what continues life.
zāraʿ: To sow or scatter seed.
זָרַע
The verb reveals that seed belongs to a continuing process of growth and harvest.
וְנָתַן
wənātan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The verse does not leave the tenth as an abstract loss: וְנָתַן (wənātan, and give) places it with the king’s officers and servants. The people’s yield is redirected into the structure that serves the ruler.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The root shows the portion being transferred into designated hands.
mattānāh: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The shared root links giving to what is placed in another’s possession.
THE PATTERN
A ruler sustains the machinery of authority by claiming a measured share of the people’s produce.
And it shall be at the coming in, that you shall give the fifth part to Pharaoh, and four hands shall be yours, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for those in your houses, and for food for your little ones.He will take the tenth of your flocks; and you shall be his servants.They said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give back therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.THE THREAD
You shall truly give a tenth of all the yield of your seed, what the field brings forth year by year.Deuteronomy joins זֶרַע (zeraʿ, seed) to the tithe verb built from עשר (ʿ-ś-r, ten or tithe), the same roots in Samuel’s claim. That shared wording makes the destination stand out: here the measured share goes to the king’s officers and servants.
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