What Does Acts 13:21 Mean?
And afterward they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
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 afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.THE KEY
The king Israel asks for arrives with a name that means “asked for”: the answer carries the shape of the request.
THE MEANING
A longing for a visible ruler becomes a request, and what is given bears that request’s shape: Saul, the “asked-for” one. Asking and receiving stand together, with desire taking form in what arrives.
THE ROOT
ᾐτήσαντο
ēitēsanto
GROWS FROM
αἰτέω
to ask or request
The Greek ᾐτήσαντο (ēitēsanto, “they asked for themselves”) comes from αἰτέω (aiteō, “to ask or request”). The verse presents the king as the object of an active request, and the same request-family can carry the force of asking for someone as a claim.
ALSO GROWS
aítēma: request, petition
αἴτημα
It names what is asked for, making clear that the king enters the verse as the content of a request.
exaitéomai: ask for oneself, demand
ἐξαιτέομαι
This compound appears in Luke’s account of Satan asking for Simon, showing that the root can carry the force of a claim.
שָׁאוּל
Sha’ul
GROWS FROM
שׁאל
to ask or request
“Saul” in this verse is Sha’ul. In Hebrew, שָׁאוּל (Sha’ul, “asked for”) is formed from שָׁאַל (sha’al, “to ask”). The people ask for a king, and the king’s name echoes the request: the answer wears the name of what was asked.
ALSO GROWS
sha’al: ask, request
שָׁאַל
This verb names the action echoed by Saul’s name and by the people’s request.
she’elah: request, petition
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun makes the connection explicit: Saul’s name and the act of asking grow from the same Hebrew seed.
ἔδωκεν
edōken
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
to give or grant
The Greek ἔδωκεν (edōken, “gave”) follows directly after the request. The verse holds asking and granting together, so the received form remains linked to what was sought.
ALSO GROWS
dósis: giving, gift
δόσις
This related noun brings the act of giving into view as the form in which a request is answered.
apodídōmi: give back, render, repay
ἀποδίδωμι
The compound keeps δίδωμι (dídōmi, “to give”) at its center, showing how the same root can describe giving in response or return.
THE PATTERN
A request can return as a received form that carries the desire’s own shape.
And they said to him, Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now set over us a king to judge us like all the nations.And he gave them their request, but sent thinness into their living soul.You ask, and do not take, because you ask badly, so that you may use it up upon your pleasures.THE THREAD
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, look, the Adversary has asked for you, to sift you as wheat.Acts uses ᾐτήσαντο (ēitēsanto, “they asked for”) from αἰτέω (aiteō, “to ask”); Luke uses ἐξῃτήσατο (exētēsato, “asked for, demanded”) from the same root. The shared language lets desire carry the force of a claim, sharpening how the people’s request becomes a ruler.
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