What Does 1 Samuel 20:28 Mean in the King James?
And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lehem:
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 Hebrew doubles “asked,” and Saul’s name means “asked for,” so the request echoes in the name of the one who hears it.
THE MEANING
You hear a desire for movement carried through another person’s voice: David asks Jonathan, and Jonathan brings the request before Saul. The Hebrew doubles “asked,” giving the request emphasis, while Bethlehem means “house of bread,” so the destination carries the image of nourishment.
THE ROOT
שָׁאֹל שָׁאַל
sha'ol sha'al
GROWS FROM
שאל
To ask, request, or inquire.
“earnestly asked” in this verse is sha'ol sha'al. The phrase repeats the root in an infinitive absolute followed by a finite verb, “asking, David asked”, a Hebrew construction that adds emphasis, rendered here as “earnestly.” Saul’s name, שָׁאוּל (Sha’ul, “asked for”), comes from the same root, making the line resonate around asking.
ALSO GROWS
Sha'ul: Asked for; requested.
שָׁאוּל
Saul’s name shares the root of David’s repeated asking, so the act of asking echoes in the name of the one receiving the report.
she'iltiv: I asked for him from the LORD.
שְׁאִלְתִּיו
Hannah uses this same root in 1 Samuel 1:20; her words connect asking with the child she receives.
THE PATTERN
A request brings desire into the open and places it before a possible response.
For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him:Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:THE THREAD
Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.Jonathan’s report uses the root שאל (sha’al, “ask”) for David’s emphatic request; Hannah uses that same root when she says she has asked for her child from the LORD. The shared root ties asking to what is received.
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