What Does 1 Samuel 8:18 Mean?
And you shall cry out in that day because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; and the LORD will not answer you in that day.
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 ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.THE KEY
The authority chosen as protection can become the cause of a cry that receives no answer.
THE MEANING
A chosen authority can become the very source of the distress you cry from. The cry rises, and in this verse the LORD gives no answer in that moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The authority I choose will necessarily protect me, and if it fails, God’s answer will arrive at once.
THE ROOT
בְּחַרְתֶּם
beḥartem
GROWS FROM
בחר
b-ḥ-r
to choose, select
“chosen” in this verse is beḥartem. The verse makes agency clear: the people choose the king for themselves, then cry because of that king. The root’s branches keep selection in view, so the distress follows from the very authority they selected.
ALSO GROWS
bāḥîr: chosen one, elect
בָּחִיר
The king is the one selected to rule; the verse then shows what that selection brings.
mivḥār: choice, choicest selection
מִבְחָר
This branch keeps the act of choosing visible alongside the consequences that follow.
וּזְעַקְתֶּם
uzʿaqtem
GROWS FROM
זעק
z-ʿ-q
to cry out, raise an urgent cry
“cry out” in this verse is uzʿaqtem. זעק carries the force of an urgent appeal. The verse sets that cry beside a withheld response, making the distress an unanswered plea.
ALSO GROWS
zeʿāqāh: cry, outcry
זְעָקָה
The noun form makes the cry a distinct outpouring of distress, not just speech.
wayyizʿaqū: they cried out
וַיִּזְעָקוּ
This same root describes the people’s cry in Exodus 2:23, where their outcry rises to God.
לֹא־יַעֲנֶה
lo-yaʿaneh
GROWS FROM
ענה
ʿ-n-h
to answer, respond
The verb translated “hear” also carries the sense of answering or responding, so the line pictures a reply withheld in the moment of appeal. A related form from the same root names an answer or response.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānāh: answer, respond
עָנָה
It is the verb used here for the LORD’s response to the cry.
maʿăneh: answer, response
מַעֲנֶה
This noun gives a name to the reply that the verse says does not come.
THE PATTERN
The power chosen as protection can become a source of harm.
And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons, and set them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.All this I see, and I give my heart to every work done under the sun. There is a time when one human has power over another to his harm.I gave you a king in the burning of my anger, and I took him away in my overflow.THE THREAD
And in those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned from the labor, and they cried out, and their outcry rose up to God from the labor.Exodus uses the same זעק (zaʿaq, cry out) root for the people’s cry. There, their cry comes up to God; here, the cry over the chosen king meets no answer in that day, making the contrast audible through the shared root.
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