What Does 1 Samuel 20:27 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of the month, that David’s place was empty: and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to day?
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
David’s place is not merely vacant; the Hebrew verb can mean both “attend to” and “muster,” making his absence something Saul actively registers.
THE MEANING
An absence becomes visible when a place is expected to be filled: the seat makes the missing presence countable. Saul notices David’s absence and immediately asks Jonathan to account for it, naming David as “the son of Jesse.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that absence leaves no trace. Here the empty place itself registers David’s missing presence and provokes a question.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפָּקֵד
wayyippāqēd
GROWS FROM
פקד
p-q-d
To attend to or visit; to muster or count.
“was empty” in this verse is wayyippāqēd. The Hebrew says David’s place “was missed,” using a form of פקד, a root also used for attending to, visiting, and mustering. The absence is more than an empty space: it is registered because attention is already fixed on who should be there.
ALSO GROWS
pequddah: Oversight, charge, appointment, or visitation.
פְּקֻדָּה
The root’s language of oversight shows how a missing presence can become something noticed and accounted for.
paqîd: An overseer or appointed officer.
פָּקִיד
This branch carries the root into the role of one assigned to watch over or attend to something, echoing Saul’s scrutiny of David’s place.
THE PATTERN
Attention makes what is missing or overlooked visible, and that attention can become action.
And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,THE THREAD
And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.The Hebrew root פקד (pāqad, “attend to” or “visit”) underlies both the report that David’s place “was empty” and the report that the LORD “had visited” Israel. In one scene it marks a person missing from a table; in the other, a people whose affliction has been seen.
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