What Does 1 Samuel 17:15 Mean in the King James?
But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth-lehem.
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
David’s nearness to Saul does not end his tending: the beloved keeps returning to his father’s flock.
THE MEANING
David (דָּוִד, David, “beloved”) moves from Saul back to tend his father’s flock; nearness to power does not erase the work of care. Bethlehem (בֵּית לֶחֶם, Beit Lechem, “house of bread”) names the place of that return as provision. The verse meets you in the lived rhythm of visibility and hidden care: one does not cancel the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being seen by power means the quiet work no longer matters.
THE ROOT
לִרְעוֹת
lirʿot
GROWS FROM
רעה
To tend, pasture, or shepherd.
English “feed” can sound like simply supplying food, but לִרְעוֹת (lirʿot, to tend or pasture) names the work of caring for a flock. Its root also gives רֹעֶה (roʿeh, shepherd), placing David’s daily task inside the language of shepherding that can also describe leadership.
ALSO GROWS
roʿeh: Shepherd, one who tends a flock.
רֹעֶה
The word shows that David is doing the work of a shepherd, not merely delivering food to sheep.
mirʿeh: Pasture or grazing place.
מִרְעֶה
This branch names the place where a flock is tended and fed, extending the verse’s image from feeding to care for the flock’s life.
וָשָׁב
vashav
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
To turn back or return.
“returned” in this verse is vashav. The verse pairs going with returning: David’s movement does not end at Saul’s side. The root holds return and turning together, making the return to his father’s flock part of the pattern rather than a footnote.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Returned; came back.
שָׁב
This is the form used in the verse and makes David’s return explicit.
teshuvah: Return or turning.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch carries the same seed of turning back, illuminating the repeated movement in David’s life.
THE PATTERN
Care for what is entrusted in a small place carries the same substance into larger responsibility.
He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.“My shepherd” is רֹעִי (roʿi, my shepherd), from רעה (raʿah, to tend or shepherd), the same root as David’s “to feed” here. The quiet work David returns to opens into the language of shepherding as a pattern of care.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us