What Does 1 Samuel 16:20 Mean in the King James?

And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul.
1 Samuel 16:20 · KJV
The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

The beloved is sent as provision: David’s hand carries bread, wine, and a young life into Saul’s need.

You are shown care arriving in a form you can receive: bread, wine, and a young goat move through David’s hand to Saul. David’s name carries belovedness, so the beloved arrives not as an idea but with material provision.

וַיִּשְׁלַח

wayyishlach

GROWS FROM

שלח

send, send forth, release, let go

English “sent” can sound like bare dispatch, while the root holds movement outward and release. Here that movement takes shape in a hand carrying food to Saul; its branches also connect sending with the healing waters called Sent and with provision spread out on a table.

ALSO GROWS

Shiloach: sent forth; the name rendered Siloam in John 9:7

שִׁלֹחַ

The pool’s name is glossed “Sent,” connecting this sending with water through which a man comes to see.

shulchan: table; the spread place of provision

שֻׁלְחָן

The table gives provision a place to be extended and received, echoing the food carried to Saul.

דָּוִד

Dawid

GROWS FROM

דוד

beloved; beloved one

David’s name carries the nature of the beloved, not only an identity. In this verse, that name arrives in the same hand as food and wine, joining belovedness with tangible provision.

ALSO GROWS

dod: beloved; also uncle in some contexts

דּוֹד

The same consonants carry the sense of belovedness contained in David’s name.

dodi: my beloved

דּוֹדִי

This form makes the root’s belovedness explicit in a direct expression of relation.

Sending becomes restoration when what goes out reaches another place as tangible provision or healing.

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psalm 107:20 · KJVWhat is sent reaches people in distress as healing and deliverance.
And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
2 Kings 4:42 · KJVProvision travels into a community and becomes food that people can receive.
And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
John 9:7 · KJVThe waters named “Sent” become the path through which sight is restored.
And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
John 9:7 · KJV

“Sent” here and the name Siloam both carry the Hebrew root ⁨שָׁלַח⁩ (shalach, to send forth or release). In this verse, provision travels through David’s hand; in John, the sent waters become part of a man’s restored sight.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us

1 Samuel 16:20 KJV Meaning