What Does 1 Samuel 15:33 Mean in the King James?
And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
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 repeats the same verb for the sword’s victims and Agag’s mother, making retaliation reproduce the bereavement it names.
THE MEANING
The sword has made women childless; now the same bereavement is spoken over Agag’s mother. The last sentence gives the judgment a body: Samuel hacks Agag apart before the LORD at Gilgal. Grief and retaliatory violence remain in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that retaliation ends violence cleanly: the answer to Agag’s sword repeats bereavement, then ends with another act of brutal violence.
THE ROOT
שִׁכְּלָה
shikkelah
GROWS FROM
שׁכל
sh-k-l
To bereave or deprive someone of children.
“made women childless” in this verse is shikkelah. The verse first uses שִׁכְּלָה (shikkelah) for what Agag’s sword did to women, then תִּשְׁכַּל (tishkal) for what will happen to his mother. The same root turns the inflicted loss into the named consequence.
ALSO GROWS
shikkel: To bereave or deprive of children.
שִׁכֵּל
This verb names the harm attributed to Agag’s sword.
shakul: Bereaved; deprived of children.
שָׁכוּל
This form names the state imposed on Agag’s mother.
חַרְבֶּךָ
charbekha
GROWS FROM
חרב
ḥ-r-b
To become dry or desolate; to lay waste.
The consonants ח־ר־ב also appear in Hebrew words for desolation. The verse’s sword is bound to the ruin it leaves behind: women bereaved, and a mother facing the same loss.
ALSO GROWS
charav: To dry up or become desolate.
חָרַב
This verb shares the consonants associated with the sword and gives the word a shade of devastation.
chorbah: Ruin; desolation.
חָרְבָּה
This noun makes explicit the desolation echoed by the sword’s consequences.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives violence a returning shape: the harm inflicted comes back upon the one who inflicts it.
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.THE THREAD
Until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?The word translated “deprived” comes from the same Hebrew root, שׁכל (sh-k-l), used for “made childless” here. In Genesis it voices a mother’s fear of losing her children; in Samuel, that root names the bereavement pronounced over Agag’s mother.
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