What Does 1 Samuel 19:1 Mean in the King James?
And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.
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
Saul’s order names killing as causing David to die, exposing the lethal act inside the speech before any blow falls.
THE MEANING
The verse puts a murderous order in plain words: Saul directs his son and servants to bring about David’s death. The violence is already present in the decision and the command, before it reaches David’s body.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that violence begins only when someone physically strikes another; here, the decision and command already carry lethal intent.
THE ROOT
לְהָמִית
ləhamît
GROWS FROM
מות
m-w-t
To die; in the causative form here, to cause someone to die.
English “kill” compresses the Hebrew causative of “die”: Saul’s command is to make death happen to David. The same root names dying and death itself, making the line’s violence exact: this is deliberate causation, not a vague threat.
ALSO GROWS
mût: To die
מוּת
This is the root’s basic action; the command takes that death and makes it something Saul directs others to cause.
māvet: Death
מָוֶת
The branch names the outcome contained in Saul’s order.
mēt: Dead; deceased
מֵת
This branch names the state the command intends to bring about.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; David’s name is associated with this sense.
The name David carries the beloved association of דוד (dōd). Here, that is the name of the person Saul orders others to kill, sharpening the violence without making the name an explanation for the order.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved; uncle
דּוֹד
The name David is traditionally linked to this word, so its sense of belovedness is present in the name of Saul’s target.
dōdîm: Loves; endearments
דּוֹדִים
This related form extends the root into expressions of affection, intensifying the contrast with the death order.
THE PATTERN
A death plot takes shape when speech recruits others to make another person die.
And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.THE THREAD
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.Genesis uses the same root מות in “thou shalt surely die” (מוֹת תָּמוּת, mot tamut); Samuel uses its causative form, “to cause to die.” The connection joins death undergone to death deliberately inflicted, which English’s “die” and “kill” can obscure.
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