What Does 1 Samuel 12:24 Mean in the King James?
Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.
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
Awe and service here are responses to sight: the verse grounds them in seeing the great things the LORD has done for you.
THE MEANING
Awe of the LORD and whole-hearted service stand on the ground of what he has done for you. The verse’s “consider” is a call to see that goodness now, so your response grows from recognition of what is already given.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your service must earn God’s action toward you: the verse points first to what he has already done for you.
THE ROOT
יְראוּ
yirʾu
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, stand in awe.
The Hebrew יְראוּ (yirʾu, “fear”) comes from ירא (y-r-ʾ, “fear, revere, stand in awe”). Joined to רְאוּ (reʾu, “see”), the word for “consider,” it makes reverence an answer to perceived greatness.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾah: Awe, fear
יִרְאָה
This noun carries the same range of reverence and fear, keeping the verse’s response rooted in awe of the LORD.
mora: Fear, dread, reverence
מוֹרָא
This branch shows how the root can express the weight of standing before what inspires awe.
רְאוּ
reʾu
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look at, perceive.
The word translated “consider” is the imperative “see.” That makes the ground for awe concrete: your attention is directed toward what the LORD has done with you.
ALSO GROWS
roʾeh: One who sees; a seer
רֹאֶה
This branch makes the act of seeing an identity as well as an event, illuminating the verse’s call to perceive.
marʾeh: Sight, appearance
מַרְאֶה
This branch connects seeing to what comes into view: here, the great things the LORD has done.
וַעֲבַדְתֶּם
vaʿavadtem
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work, serve.
The Hebrew עבד (ʿ-b-d, “work, serve”) also names labor and the servant. The root holds service as something enacted, while “with all your heart” names the wholeness brought to it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant
עֶבֶד
This related word shows service as a lived relationship, not only an inward feeling.
ʿavodah: Work, service
עֲבֹדָה
This branch makes the active, practical dimension of serving visible.
THE PATTERN
Reverence for God takes outward form as a wholehearted response to what God has already given.
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.THE THREAD
And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.The seeing-root ראה (raʾah, “see, perceive”) and awe-root ירא (yare, “fear, stand in awe”) appear together here too. Seeing the LORD’s work and fearing him form one response, illuminating the same pairing in Samuel’s “fear” and “consider.”
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