What Does 1 Samuel 19:5 Mean in the King James?
For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
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 rescue of a whole people is carried by one living soul who risks his life, and the witness to that rescue can still turn against him.
THE MEANING
The verse names a contradiction that remains alive now: one person risks his living self for everyone, and that deliverance is seen and celebrated, yet the witness can turn toward killing the same innocent person without cause. Rejoicing in another’s rescue does not by itself make that person safe from the one who saw it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that someone becomes expendable once their service is done. David’s blood remains innocent, and the proposed killing remains without cause even after his risk has helped the whole people.
THE ROOT
תְּשׁוּעָה
teshuʿah
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver, rescue from danger; bring out of constriction into room.
The KJV’s “salvation” is a concrete rescue here, not an abstraction: David’s danger becomes deliverance for all Israel. The root holds the act of delivering and the deliverance received together, keeping the public rescue connected to the life that carried it.
ALSO GROWS
yashaʿ: Deliver, rescue.
יָשַׁע
The verb names the act that brings someone out of danger, the movement at the heart of Israel’s rescue.
yeshuʿah: Deliverance, rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun from the same root names the rescue as a reality received, like the great deliverance David’s risk brings to Israel.
moshiaʿ: Deliverer, rescuer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one through whom rescue comes, making David’s role in the people’s deliverance visible.
נַפְשׁוֹ
nafsho
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
The living self or person; the related verb also means to rest or be refreshed.
“life” in this verse is nafsho. The word is nefesh, the living soul: David places his whole living self in danger, not an abstract span of time. The hand image makes that exposure tangible, as though his living self rests in his own palm.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, living self.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the noun beneath “his life,” naming David as a whole living person put at risk.
naphash: Rest, be refreshed.
נָפַשׁ
The related verb describes a living being receiving rest and renewal, underscoring that the life David risks is something precious and capable of restoration.
תֶּחֱטָא
teḥĕṭāʾ
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
Miss, err, go astray.
“sin” in this verse is teḥĕṭāʾ. Jonathan names the intended killing as a missing: Saul turns against the reality of the rescue he has witnessed. The phrase “without a cause” sharpens the miss, there is no cause that makes the innocent life a rightful target.
ALSO GROWS
ḥataʾ: Miss, err.
חָטָא
The verb names the act of departing from what has been seen and recognized.
ḥet: Missing, offense.
חֵטְא
The noun keeps the idea of a miss inside what English calls sin, giving Jonathan’s warning a concrete shape.
ḥattaʾt: Missing, sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This branch carries the same root into the language of an offering for the missing, linking the wrong named here to the possibility of its covering.
THE PATTERN
A life risked for others becomes a measure of whether the people who benefit from it treat that life as precious.
Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.THE THREAD
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.The Hebrew verb “saved” (וַיּוֹשַׁע, vayoshaʿ: delivered) and this verse’s “salvation” (תְּשׁוּעָה, teshuʿah: deliverance) share the root יָשַׁע (yashaʿ: deliver). Exodus names the LORD as Israel’s deliverer at the sea; here the same deliverance reaches Israel through David’s risk.
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