What Does 1 Samuel 13:15 Mean in the King James?

And Samuel arose, and gat him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men.

1 Samuel 13:15 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Saul’s “numbering” is an act of taking attendance: the Hebrew root binds counting to attending to who is actually there.

THE MEANING

There are moments when direction moves on and you can only see who remains beside you. What remains is still countable, about six hundred, and the starting place, Gilgal, carries the name’s resonance of what has been rolled away.

THE ROOT

וַיִּפְקֹד

wayyiqpod

GROWS FROM

פקד

paqad

Attend to, muster, appoint, or number.

The verb translated “numbered” comes from a root that also describes attending to people and appointing someone to a charge. Saul’s count therefore carries the sense of taking stock of who is present under his care, not just totaling figures.

ALSO GROWS

paqíd: An appointed officer or overseer.

פָּקִיד

The branch shows how attending to people can include assigning someone responsibility over them.

pequddah: An appointment, charge, or muster.

פְּקֻדָּה

This branch connects the count to a muster: the gathered people are being taken into account as a body.

גִּלְגָּל

Gilgal

GROWS FROM

גלל

galal

Roll or roll away.

Gilgal is associated with the root ⁨גלל⁩, “roll”; Joshua 5:9 explicitly ties the place name to the LORD rolling away Egypt’s reproach. The name gives Samuel’s point of departure a resonance of release as the verse turns to Saul’s count.

ALSO GROWS

galal: To roll or roll away.

גָּלַל

This is the verb behind the name’s association with something being rolled away.

galgal: A wheel; a rolling thing.

גַּלְגַּל

The related form makes the root’s image of rolling concrete and echoes in the place name Gilgal.

THE PATTERN

Scripture makes a small remaining company visible by naming or counting it.

And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men;

1 Samuel 14:2 · KJVThe same company is again made visible by its number: about six hundred remain with Saul.

And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

Judges 7:7 · KJVThe reduced company is named as three hundred, making the smallness of the force explicit.

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Luke 12:32 · KJVThe small company is named as a “little flock,” its size plainly visible in the words.

THE THREAD

And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

Joshua 5:9 · KJV

Joshua 5:9 explicitly connects Gilgal with ⁨גלל⁩, “roll away,” as the LORD removes Egypt’s reproach. That shared root gives Samuel’s starting place a resonance of release while Saul takes stock of the company still with him.

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