What Does 1 Samuel 19:16 Mean in the King James?
And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster.
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
A substitute can fill the bed and still leave the person absent.
THE MEANING
The messengers enter, and what meets their eyes is an image in the place where a living person is expected. The detail at the head-place shows how the appearance is arranged to stand in for someone. The verse lets the image and the person come apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A convincing arrangement is not the living person it represents; the space occupied by an image can still be empty of the person expected.
THE ROOT
מְרַאֲשֹׁתָיו
mĕraʾăšōtāw
GROWS FROM
רֹאשׁ
rosh
Head, top, or chief; related forms can also mean beginning or first.
The Hebrew word rendered “bolster” locates the goats’ hair at the head-place. From rosh, which also names what is chief or first, the wording places part of the staged appearance where a person’s head is expected, helping an image occupy the place of a living presence.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head, top, or chief.
רֹאשׁ
The head-place in the verse is where the image is positioned to resemble someone lying in the bed.
reshit: Beginning or first.
רֵאשִׁית
This related form carries the sense of what comes first; here, the head is the leading feature by which the body is imagined.
THE PATTERN
An appearance can be shaped to impersonate a presence, while its constructed features reveal the gap between image and person.
And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?THE THREAD
And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.The verse just before this one describes the image being placed in the bed and the goats’ hair set at the head-place. The shared Hebrew head-word shows that the messengers encounter a deliberately arranged stand-in, not a living person.
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