What Does 1 Samuel 1:14 Mean in the King James?
And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Eli’s command exposes how a confident diagnosis can mistake visible grief for drunkenness.
THE MEANING
Eli reads Hannah’s visible distress as drunkenness and tells her to put her wine away. His confident label reveals the distance between seeing a sign and knowing what a person carries.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that outward behavior gives certain access to another person’s inner state: Hannah’s next words say she has drunk neither wine nor strong drink and has poured out her soul before the LORD.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁתַּכָּרִין
tishtakkarin
GROWS FROM
שכר
sh-k-r
To be or become drunk; intoxicated.
The root of “drunken” also forms שֵׁכָר (shekhar, strong or intoxicating drink), bringing intoxication and intoxicant into one word family. Yet this verse uses יַיִן (yayin, wine) for the drink, so Eli’s sentence records his assumption without proving it.
ALSO GROWS
shekhar: Strong or intoxicating drink.
שֵׁכָר
This branch shares the root of “drunken,” joining the state Eli names with an intoxicating drink.
shikkor: A drunk or intoxicated person.
שִׁכּוֹר
This branch names a person by the same root, showing how the root can describe both intoxication and the one experiencing it.
תָּסִירִי
tasiri
GROWS FROM
סור
s-w-r
To turn aside or depart; in this verb form, to remove or take away.
“put away” in this verse is tasiri. Eli tells Hannah to make the wine depart from her. The root’s language of turning aside sharpens the command: he presents removal of the alleged drink as the answer to the state he has assigned her.
ALSO GROWS
sur: To turn aside or depart.
סוּר
The basic verb reveals the movement underneath “put away”: something is made to leave its place.
hesir: To remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form shares the root and shows the direct act of making something depart.
THE PATTERN
Outward signs invite confident labels, but they do not disclose the heart.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.THE THREAD
And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.Hannah answers Eli’s accusation directly: she has drunk neither wine nor strong drink; she has poured out her נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul) before the LORD. Her words reveal what Eli’s reading misses: the visible sign comes from sorrow, not wine.
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