What Does 1 Samuel 13:8 Mean in the King James?
And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
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 verb translated “tarried” also carries the sense of hoping, so this is expectation under strain, and the people’s scattering reveals what that strain exposes.
THE MEANING
When the one you expect does not arrive at the appointed time, the pressure of the interval can reveal how fragile a gathered circle is. The scattering remains plain in this verse; it is not explained away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a crowd’s present closeness guarantees that it will stay together when expected support is delayed.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹחֶל
wayyōḥel
GROWS FROM
יחל
yāḥal
To wait, hope, or look toward something with expectation.
“tarried” in this verse is wayyōḥel. The Hebrew word holds waiting and hoping in one family: this is not empty time but attention fixed on an expected arrival. The interval has a מוֹעֵד (mōʿēd, appointed time or meeting), yet Samuel does not appear and the people come apart.
ALSO GROWS
yāḥēl: He waits or hopes.
יָחֵל
This verb form keeps waiting joined to expectation, the force carried by Saul’s tarrying.
meyaḥel: One who waits or looks with hope.
מְיַחֵל
The waiting person is oriented toward what is expected, not merely passing time.
וַיָּפֶץ
wayyāpeṣ
GROWS FROM
פוץ
pûts
To scatter, disperse, or spread apart.
“scattered” in this verse is wayyāpeṣ. This verb gives the movement a spreading-apart force: the people are dispersed away from Saul. The loss of a shared center becomes physical and directional.
ALSO GROWS
nāfōts: Scattered or dispersed.
נָפוֹץ
This form describes the state of being spread apart, as the people are in the verse.
yāfūtsū: They will spread out or scatter.
יָפוּצוּ
The same root portrays a group moving outward from a common point.
THE PATTERN
A following held by visible reassurance can fracture when its expected guide is delayed, struck, or speaks a hard word.
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.THE THREAD
And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings: seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and shew thee what thou shalt do.The same Hebrew root יחל (yāḥal, wait or hope) appears in Samuel’s instruction that Saul wait seven days for him. Here, the appointed interval becomes visible in the distance between the expected arrival and a people who scatter.
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