What Does 1 Samuel 13:22 Mean in the King James?

So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.

1 Samuel 13:22 · 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

The battle reveals a people disarmed as a whole while the capacity to strike is concentrated in Saul and Jonathan’s hands.

THE MEANING

The verse exposes a people facing battle without swords or spears in their own hands, while Saul and Jonathan are armed. The division of defensive power is visible: the people’s hands are empty; their leaders’ are not.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that a people shares its leaders’ ability to defend itself: Saul and Jonathan have weapons, but the people around them do not.

THE ROOT

חֶרֶב

cherev

GROWS FROM

חרב

To become dry, desolate, or laid waste.

The word for sword shares its root with words for becoming desolate and for ruin. In a verse about who has weapons and who does not, the word carries the devastation a sword can bring alongside the fact of the weapon itself.

ALSO GROWS

charav: To become dry or desolate.

חָרַב

This branch gives the sword’s root a sense of the ruin associated with battle.

chorbah: Ruin or desolation.

חֳרָבָה

The same root connects the weapon to the devastation that can follow its use.

נִמְצָא

nimtsa

GROWS FROM

מצא

To find, encounter, or come upon.

The verse repeats the root for finding: no sword or spear is found among the people, but weapons are found with Saul and Jonathan. The repeated word makes the difference one of location and access, not simply a general shortage.

ALSO GROWS

matsa: To find or encounter.

מָצָא

This active form names the act of finding that the verse presents in passive form.

nimtsa: To be found or be present.

נִמְצָא

This passive form makes the contrast precise: weapons are absent from the people’s hands and present with the two leaders.

THE PATTERN

A people’s readiness for conflict is revealed by whether defense is in their own hands or kept out of reach.

Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears:

1 Samuel 13:19 · KJVThe absence of weapons among the people is tied to the absence of anyone who can make them.

They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

Judges 5:8 · KJVAs in the verse at hand, battle arrives while Israel’s people lack the ordinary means of defense.

They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.

Nehemiah 4:17 · KJVHere the weapon is held in the people’s own hands, making their readiness visible even as they work.

THE THREAD

Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears:

1 Samuel 13:19 · KJV

The root for “found” returns: no smith is found throughout Israel, then no sword or spear is found in the people’s hands. This verse reveals why their hands are empty: the means to make weapons has been kept out of reach.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us