What Does 1 Samuel 1:26 Mean in the King James?
And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD.
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
The Hebrew word for “soul” in Hannah’s oath is the same word for the living self she says she poured out before the LORD in verse 15.
THE MEANING
Hannah names herself by the prayer she offered and states plainly who she is. The verse speaks now: another person’s mistaken reading of a moment does not erase the truth of the living person within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being misunderstood does not make another person’s mistake the truth of who you are.
THE ROOT
נַפְשְׁךָ
nafsh’kha
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־שׁ
n-p-sh
The living self: the person, life, or whole living being.
The Hebrew נַפְשְׁךָ (nafsh’kha, “your living soul”) names Eli as a whole living person in the oath. In verse 15, Hannah uses the same root for the self she pours out before the LORD, holding his life and her prayer-opened life together.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul; the whole living person.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the form behind “soul” in both Hannah’s oath here and her words about pouring out her soul in verse 15.
yinnaphesh: Be refreshed or rest.
יִנָּפֵשׁ
The same root also names rest for a living being, keeping life and its renewal close together.
THE PATTERN
Prayer brings the inward self into open relation with God and remains present beyond a single moment.
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.Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;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.Both verses use נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, “living soul”), from נ־פ־שׁ (n-p-sh, the root of the living self). In verse 15 Hannah pours out her own living self before the LORD; here she invokes Eli’s living self as she names herself as the woman who prayed.
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