What Does 1 Samuel 14:44 Mean in the King James?
And Saul answered, God do so and more also: for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan.
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
Hebrew doubles the root for “die,” turning Saul’s words into a sentence spoken with absolute certainty.
THE MEANING
You hear a human voice invoke God and sentence another person to die. The doubled death-word gives the declaration the force of absolute certainty.
THE ROOT
מוֹת תָּמוּת
môt tâmût
GROWS FROM
מות
mût
to die; death
“surely die” in this verse is môt tâmût. The line repeats the root מות: first as an infinitive, then as “you will die”; English carries the emphasis in “surely.” That doubled root presses Saul’s threat into the form of a verdict.
ALSO GROWS
māvet: death
מָוֶת
This noun names the outcome contained in the root Saul repeats.
mēt: dead; deceased
מֵת
This branch names the state that Saul’s sentence says Jonathan will enter.
hēmît: to cause to die; put to death
הֵמִית
This causative form makes explicit the action carried by Saul’s threat.
THE PATTERN
Oaths bind speech to a curse so a human demand or threat sounds unavoidable.
And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide it not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide any thing from me of all the things that he said unto thee.And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.THE THREAD
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.Genesis uses the same doubled form of מות, “surely die.” There it states a consequence tied to eating; Saul uses the emphatic death-language as a sentence against Jonathan.
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