What Does 1 Samuel 16:15 Mean in the King James?
And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
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 same Hebrew word that holds wind, breath, and spirit can name the force that leaves Saul troubled, its effect is part of what the verse reveals.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you a stark picture: רוּחַ (ruach, breath, wind, spirit) from God troubles Saul. The force is named as evil, and its effect is not abstract: Saul is distressed. The text holds divine source and human anguish in the same sentence, without explaining the tension away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a divine source guarantees a gentle experience: the verse names what comes from God as evil and distressing.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
r-w-ḥ
Wind, breath, spirit; moving air.
English spirit can sound separate from the physical world, but this Hebrew word also means wind and breath: one moving reality, not three unrelated things. Here its effect is disquiet, so the word’s unity does not soften the harm the verse names.
ALSO GROWS
ruachot: Winds; the plural form of ruach.
רוּחוֹת
The plural preserves the same word for moving air, showing that the verse’s spirit belongs to a word-world that also names wind.
ruchi: My spirit, breath, or wind.
רוּחִי
The possessive form keeps spirit within the language of breath and movement, rather than separating it from lived experience.
רָעָה
ra'ah
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
To be bad or harmful; badness and evil.
English evil can sound like a purely moral label; this root also carries badness and harm. Its range lets the word name what is morally wrong and what injures or brings calamity, keeping the verse’s distress concrete.
ALSO GROWS
ra: Bad, evil, or harmful; masculine adjective.
רַע
This form shares the root’s range of wrong and harm, underscoring that the force in the verse is described as damaging.
herea: To do evil or cause harm.
הֵרֵעַ
This verbal form gives the root an active edge: harm is something that can be done, not only a quality assigned to a thing.
מְבַעִתֶּךָ
meva'itekha
GROWS FROM
בעת
b-ʿ-t
To terrify, startle, or dismay.
“troubleth” in this verse is meva'itekha. The verb is stronger than ordinary bothering: it means to terrify or dismay. That force sharpens the scene, Saul is not merely irritated; the verse describes a fear-producing disturbance.
ALSO GROWS
ba'at: To be terrified or struck with fear.
בָּעַת
This verbal form shows the root’s direct link to terror, sharpening what the verse means by being troubled.
be'atah: Terror or sudden alarm.
בְּעָתָה
The noun names the state produced by the root’s action, making the distress more acute than a passing inconvenience.
THE PATTERN
Across Hebrew and Greek, a word for spirit also means wind or breath, and its unseen movement is recognized through what it does.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.THE THREAD
Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.The same Hebrew terms appear together: רוּחַ (ruach, spirit, wind) and רָעָה (ra’ah, evil, harm). This exact root echo extends the difficult pairing into another scene, leaving the tension around divine agency and distress visible rather than resolved.
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