What Does 1 Samuel 15:18 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
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 journey is a dispatch into an explicitly destructive commission, with חרם (ḥ-r-m) naming the Amalekites’ devotion to destruction.
THE MEANING
The verse puts before you a command that sends the addressed person into war against the Amalekites, with their destruction as its stated endpoint. It calls them “sinners” and says the fight continues until they are consumed; the violence is explicit in the sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that “utterly destroy” means only a limited military defeat: the verse gives the endpoint as the Amalekites being consumed.
THE ROOT
וְהַחֲרַמְתָּה
wehaḥaramtā
GROWS FROM
חרם
Place under the ban; devote irrevocably, often to destruction.
The root behind “utterly destroy” marks the Amalekites as devoted to destruction. It reveals that destruction is not incidental to the commission: it is the command’s stated aim.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A ban or something devoted to destruction.
חֵרֶם
This noun shows the same root naming the status imposed by the command.
heḥĕrîm: He placed under the ban or devoted to destruction.
הֶחֱרִים
This verb carries the same act as the verse’s “utterly destroy,” making the root’s force plain.
וַיִּשְׁלָחֲךָ
vayyishlaḥăkā
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, send away, or release.
“sent” in this verse is vayyishlaḥăkā. This root names the act of dispatch, but does not by itself specify whether the commission is merciful or violent. The words that follow define this sending as a command to fight until destruction.
ALSO GROWS
shillēaḥ: Send away or dismiss.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This branch shows the root’s sense of sending someone or something away.
shālūaḥ: One who is sent; an envoy.
שָׁלוּחַ
This branch connects the act of sending with the person who carries out the commission.
הַחַטָּאִים
haḥaṭṭāʾîm
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss, fail, or incur fault.
The root behind “sinners” carries the sense of missing or fault. That root-level texture does not soften what follows: the verse places this label directly beside an order for destruction.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: Missing, fault, or sin.
חֵטְא
This noun makes visible the root shared with the verse’s label for the Amalekites.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Missing or fault; in ritual contexts, an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This branch shows the root extending from a fault to a response associated with that fault.
THE PATTERN
A sending is not self-contained: the words attached to it name the commission and its consequences.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.THE THREAD
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.The same root שָׁלַח (shalach, send) opens both verses. Exodus names bringing people out as the commission; this verse names war and the Amalekites’ destruction, showing how much the sending’s meaning lies in the command that follows.
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