What Does 1 Samuel 20:2 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so.
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 same Hebrew word names both what is done and what is said about it: the hidden “thing” is also the withheld word.
THE MEANING
Your fear can meet sincere reassurance from someone who loves you. Their confidence may express what they know, but it cannot establish everything they do not know; the hidden matter still has to come into view. The verse holds open the distance between a person’s certainty and what is actually concealed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If someone close to me insists there is no danger, then my fear must be mistaken.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
The verbal root means speak; the noun דָּבָר (davar) can mean a word, matter, affair, or thing.
English “thing” sounds like an object, but דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) also names what is spoken. The verse repeats it for both what the father might do and the matter Jonathan says could not be hidden, binding event to disclosure.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke; communicated.
דִּבֵּר
This verb grows from the same root, linking the hidden matter with the words that could disclose it.
devarim: Words, matters, or things.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps speech and events within one word family, where English separates a “thing” from what is said about it.
יַסְתִּיר
yastir
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide or conceal, to keep something out of sight.
“hide” in this verse is yastir. This root can name a hidden place as well as the act of hiding. Here the concealment creates distance between the matter and the person who expects to hear of it.
ALSO GROWS
seter: A hidden place; a secret place.
סֵתֶר
The root can describe a place where something is kept out of view, as well as the act of concealment.
histatter: To hide oneself or remain concealed.
הִסְתַּתֵּר
This form makes the hiddenness personal: someone or something can remain beyond another’s sight.
THE PATTERN
Hiddenness can delay recognition, but it cannot make the matter disappear; what is concealed can come into view.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.THE THREAD
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.The Hebrew word behind “thing” and “matter” here is דָּבָר (davar, word or matter), the same noun repeated in Jonathan’s reply. The proverb treats a concealed davar as something that can still be searched out.
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