What Does 1 Samuel 19:10 Mean in the King James?
And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.
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 javelin reaches the wall, but David gets free: the Hebrew describes escape as a release from Saul’s grasp.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the violence plainly: Saul aims to pin David to the wall, and the javelin strikes the wall as David escapes. It speaks now to the feeling of being in danger’s reach: closeness to danger does not make capture inevitable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once danger has you in its sights, it already owns the outcome.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְטַר
wayyippāṭar
GROWS FROM
פטר
To release, loosen, or open; in this form, to get free or escape.
The Hebrew verb translated “slipped away” carries the sense of release: David is not described as overpowering Saul, but as getting free of his reach. The same root can describe an opening, so escape appears as a way out where the threat seemed to leave no space.
ALSO GROWS
pāṭar: To release or let go.
פָּטַר
This verb names the loosening that the verse shows when David gets out of Saul’s reach.
peṭer: An opening or first issue, as in the opening of the womb.
פֶּטֶר
The root’s image of an opening illuminates how escape creates a way through what seemed closed.
וַיִּמָּלֵט
wayyimmālēṭ
GROWS FROM
מלט
To escape or be delivered from danger.
“escaped” in this verse is wayyimmālēṭ. The verse uses another escape verb after saying David fled: the two actions press the fact of his getting away. This root also means to deliver, holding escape and rescue together in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
mālaṭ: To escape or get away.
מָלַט
This is the root’s basic action, repeated in the verse’s account of David’s escape.
millēṭ: To deliver or rescue.
מִלֵּט
This branch shows that the root can describe not only getting away, but being brought out of danger.
נָס
nās
GROWS FROM
נוס
To flee or take flight.
“fled” in this verse is nās. David’s flight is followed by a second word for escape, making his departure unmistakable. The root also gives Hebrew a word for refuge: flight and the place of safety belong to the same word family.
ALSO GROWS
nūs: To flee or take flight.
נוּס
This is the action attributed to David as the javelin strikes the wall.
mānōs: A refuge or place of escape.
מָנוֹס
The related noun connects taking flight with the possibility of a place beyond the pursuer’s reach.
THE PATTERN
When force closes around someone, escape can open beyond the pursuer’s hold.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.THE THREAD
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.Psalm 124 uses the same Hebrew root, מלט (mālaṭ), translated “escaped” in 1 Samuel. Here the escape becomes visible as a snare breaking: what once held someone can lose its grip.
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