What Does 1 Samuel 18:21 Mean in the King James?

And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain.

1 Samuel 18:21 · 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 KEY

The snare is a promise of belonging engineered to place its recipient within an enemy’s reach.

THE MEANING

Here, a promised bond carries danger: marriage is used to place David within reach of hostile force. The offer is called a gift, while its purpose is to bring the Philistines’ power down on him.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that an offer of closeness proves care: a gift can be designed to expose its recipient to harm.

THE ROOT

מוֹקֵשׁ

moqesh

GROWS FROM

יקש

y-q-sh

To set a snare or entrap.

“snare” in this verse is moqesh. The verse makes marriage itself the trap, with Philistine force waiting at its opening. What looks like a gift of connection is designed as a device of capture.

ALSO GROWS

yaqash: To set a snare; to ensnare.

יָקַשׁ

This verb makes the trap deliberate: the danger is part of the offer’s design.

noqash: To be ensnared; to be caught in a trap.

נוֹקַשׁ

This form names the intended result for David: being caught within the danger Saul has arranged.

דָּוִד

dāwîd

GROWS FROM

דוד

d-w-d

Beloved; beloved one.

David’s name carries belovedness. That sharpens the verse’s collision: the person named for belovedness is made the target of a snare hidden inside a bond.

ALSO GROWS

dōd: Beloved; lover.

דּוֹד

This branch carries the beloved nature compressed in David’s name.

dōdîm: Loves; caresses.

דֹּדִים

The word’s intimate sense stands against the way a promised relationship is being used here, as a means of capture.

THE PATTERN

What appears to offer safety or sustenance can become a snare when it is made an instrument of capture.

And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 8:14 · KJVThe same figure is both sanctuary and snare, showing how what seems to offer refuge can also become a point of capture.

Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

Psalm 69:22 · KJVThe table that should sustain becomes a snare, turning provision into the means of entrapment.

And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

2 Timothy 2:26 · KJVThe snare is exposed by its result: people are caught and held captive.

THE THREAD

And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?

Exodus 10:7 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨מוֹקֵשׁ⁩ (moqesh), “snare.” In Exodus, the court sees release as a threat to those holding power; here, Saul engineers a trap for David, revealing how control turns freedom into danger.

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