What Does 1 Samuel 16:5 Mean in the King James?
And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
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 word rendered “peaceably” is שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), from the same root that names שְׁלָמִים (shelamim, peace offerings), so the approach to sacrifice carries an echo of shared well-being.
THE MEANING
The approach begins with shalom, then Jesse and his sons are set apart and called as a group to the sacrifice. Preparation becomes part of the gathering: the sacred act has a peaceful tone and a shared human setting. Wholeness and set-apartness meet in this movement toward the LORD.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
The same root also gives the name for peace offerings, though the word for sacrifice in this verse is a different Hebrew term. That resonance lets “peaceably” carry wholeness and shared well-being into the scene without making sacrifice a synonym for peace.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
It shows that the peace in shalom carries the sense of wholeness, not only an absence of conflict.
shelamim: Peace offerings, offerings of well-being.
שְׁלָמִים
This branch echoes the verse’s sacrificial gathering with the language of well-being, while remaining distinct from its word for sacrifice.
הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ
hitqaddeshu
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To set apart as sacred.
“sanctify yourselves” in this verse is hitqaddeshu. The command is reflexive: set yourselves apart. The same root names both the set-apart quality and the sanctuary, so the people are prepared as participants in a sacred gathering, not merely spectators.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart, sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
It names the state the household enters through the act translated “sanctify.”
miqdash: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
It shares the root that marks the people as set apart, linking the gathered participants with the sacred space.
THE PATTERN
Setting people apart prepares them to approach the sacred together.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.The word rendered “peaceably” here is שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), the same word repeated in Isaiah’s “perfect peace.” In both verses, peace carries the sense of wholeness: here it names the quality of the approach, and there the settled state of the one whose mind rests on God.
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