What Does 1 Samuel 1:6 Mean in the King James?
And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.
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 translated “adversary” belongs to the same word family as distress and narrowness: the rival herself is named in the language of pressure.
THE MEANING
You may know the pain of an intimate hope that remains closed while someone presses on that exact wound. The verse places both forces in view: the LORD is named as the one who shut the womb, and the adversary provokes because of that closure. It leaves the tension unresolved rather than making the hurt smaller.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A closed hope is not always a private pain that others leave alone; another person can turn it into a weapon.
THE ROOT
צָרָתָהּ
tsaratah
GROWS FROM
צָרַר
tsarar
To bind, press, or make narrow; the word family also carries the sense of distress and hostility.
The word translated “her adversary” names a rival, while its word family also names trouble and narrowness. English gives the social role; Hebrew keeps the pressure of distress inside that word family.
ALSO GROWS
tsarah: distress, trouble; also a rival wife
צָרָה
The shared word family links the rival in the verse with the distress she intensifies.
tsar: narrow, tight, or distressing
צַר
This branch makes the pressure in the relationship echo the larger movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
רַחְמָהּ
rachmah
GROWS FROM
רָחַם
racham
To show compassion; this consonant family also includes the word for womb.
The Hebrew word for womb, rechem, belongs to the same consonant family as rachamim, compassion. That echo sits inside a verse where the womb is closed, holding tenderness beside unresolved pain without explaining the closure away.
ALSO GROWS
rachamim: compassion
רַחֲמִים
The shared consonants place the closed womb and the language of compassion within one word family.
rachum: compassionate
רַחוּם
This related form names compassionate character, adding a quiet resonance to the verse’s language of the womb.
סָגַר
sagar
GROWS FROM
סָגַר
sagar
To shut, close, or enclose.
“shut up” in this verse is sagar. The verse describes the womb as shut, making its unavailability concrete. Elsewhere this root can also mean to hand someone over, so its range holds both closure and enclosure under constraint.
ALSO GROWS
sagur: closed or shut
סָגוּר
This related form makes the verse’s image of closure explicit.
hisgir: to hand over or deliver up
הִסְגִּיר
This branch extends the root’s sense of enclosure into being placed under another’s power.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names anguish plainly, both as inward pressure and as harm intensified through another person’s hostility.
And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.THE THREAD
The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.The Hebrew behind “distresses” belongs to the same narrowness and pressure word family as “adversary” here. The psalm gives that pressure an honest voice and a plea to be brought out.
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