What Does 1 Samuel 20:20 Mean in the King James?
And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark.
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 arrow appears to have a target, but its true aim is to send a message.
THE MEANING
The arrows are aimed in plain sight, but their placement carries a second message for the one who knows how to read it. What looks like a shot at a mark becomes a signal, so the visible act and its hidden meaning coexist.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that what an action appears to do is all it means.
THE ROOT
אוֹרֶה
ʾōreh
GROWS FROM
ירה
To throw or shoot; in a related form, to direct or instruct.
“shoot” in this verse is ʾōreh. English gives you only a shot; the Hebrew root also carries direction and instruction. Its branches link an arrow tracing a line through space with teaching that directs a person, fitting a verse where the shot’s course carries a message.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction or teaching.
תּוֹרָה
The same root links the arrow’s physical direction with instruction that points someone along a way.
moreh: One who teaches or directs.
מוֹרֶה
As the arrow points along a course, the instructor directs understanding; here, the arrow’s course itself communicates.
THE PATTERN
A visible sign can carry meaning beyond its apparent purpose.
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.THE THREAD
Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.The Hebrew verb translated “teach” is יוֹרֶה (yōreh, “he instructs”), from the same root יָרָה (yārâ, “direct or shoot”) as “shoot” here. The root joins an arrow’s direction with instruction that points a person along a way.
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