What Does 1 Samuel 18:27 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king’s son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
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 verse makes marriage the last step in an exchange that counts dead bodies as payment and then gives Michal to David.
THE MEANING
Dead Philistines become a countable payment, and Michal is given to David as the marriage that payment secures. The sequence moves from killing, to presenting the bodies, to giving a woman; the verse leaves the violence inside the marriage bond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the idea that this marriage is separate from the violence that secures it: the counted bodies are its stated price.
THE ROOT
וַיְמַלְאוּם
vaymal’um
GROWS FROM
מלא
m-l-ʾ
To fill or be full.
The phrase rendered “in full tale” comes from a verb meaning “they filled them.” The bodies are presented as a completed quota, making the violence measurable before Saul gives Michal to David.
ALSO GROWS
male: Full.
מָלֵא
The same root makes fullness the condition of the payment: the number has to be complete.
melo: Fullness; what fills a space or measure.
מְלֹא
This branch echoes the verse’s completed measure, where the bodies fill the king’s demanded count.
וַיִּתֶּן
vayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is vayyitten. The root can mean both giving and placing. Here Saul gives Michal “to wife,” placing her within a marriage bond after David supplies the filled quota.
ALSO GROWS
mattan: Gift.
מַתָּן
This noun from the same root makes the language of giving tangible beside Michal’s transfer to David.
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The same root’s gift-word sharpens the verse’s unsettling movement from counted bodies to a daughter given in marriage.
THE PATTERN
A marriage becomes transactional when a person’s place in the bond is mediated by a price paid in labor, property, or bodies.
And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.And David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth Saul’s son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of the Philistines.So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:THE THREAD
And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.This verse states the price and exposes Saul’s purpose: he calls it no dowry while setting a quota of mutilated bodies and hoping David dies. The next verse shows David exceeding that quota before Saul gives Michal to him.
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