What Does 1 Samuel 10:5 Mean in the King James?
After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy:
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 prophetic word here is not an isolated voice: it arrives as a shared act, with instruments sounding before the company speaks.
THE MEANING
The verse places you at a threshold where a solitary journey becomes an encounter with a company: instruments lead, and prophetic speech rises among them. The high place and the Philistine garrison occupy the same scene, so this encounter unfolds in contested terrain, not apart from it.
THE ROOT
מִתְנַבְּאִים
mitnabbe'im
GROWS FROM
נבא
Speak or act as a prophet; the deeper etymological origin is uncertain.
The form מִתְנַבְּאִים (mitnabbe’im, “they prophesy”) and נְבִיאִים (nevi’im, “prophets”) in this verse share the root נבא (n-b-ʾ, prophetic speech). English makes the people and their action look like separate ideas; Hebrew holds them in one word-family, naming the company and the act unfolding among them together.
ALSO GROWS
navi: A prophet; one who speaks prophetically.
נָבִיא
The company is named by the same root as the prophetic act they perform.
nevuah: Prophecy or prophetic utterance.
נְבוּאָה
This branch names the speech itself, linking the prophets, their action, and their message.
THE PATTERN
Prophetic speech can emerge in shared settings, alongside music and other forms of communal practice.
Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was:But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.THE THREAD
Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was:The Hebrew root נבא (n-b-ʾ, prophetic speech) joins “prophesy” in this verse to the prophets’ work in Chronicles. There, as here, prophecy appears within a company and alongside instruments, making the shared form of the encounter visible.
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