What Does 1 Samuel 22:17 Mean in the King James?

And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.

1 Samuel 22:17 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew says “send”: the king commands a killing, but the servants refuse to send their hands into it.

THE MEANING

The king treats the priests’ connection to David as grounds for killing them, and orders the men around him to act. They refuse to put their hands to the violence. The threat is explicit, and so is the refusal that interrupts it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that an authority’s command makes those under it powerless to refuse.

THE ROOT

לִשְׁלֹחַ

lishloach

GROWS FROM

שׁלח

To send, send forth, release, or stretch out the hand.

“put forth” in this verse is lishloach. The Hebrew phrase is “to send their hand”: the hand is not just proof of allegiance, but an action directed outward. The servants refuse that movement, keeping their hands from the killing.

ALSO GROWS

shilluach: Sending away; release.

שִׁלּוּחַ

The same root can name letting something go; here, the servants hold back their hands instead of sending them against the priests.

Shiloach: Sent forth; the name associated with Siloam.

שִׁלֹחַ

The sent waters of Shiloach point toward a life-restoring use of this root’s outward movement, unlike the violence the king commands here.

shulchan: Table; a place where provision is spread out.

שֻׁלְחָן

The root’s outward reach can serve provision as well as harm; in this verse, the decisive question is where the hand is sent.

THE PATTERN

A command from authority does not make obedience inevitable; refusal can keep a demanded act from being carried out.

But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

Exodus 1:17 · KJVThe midwives refuse a king’s command to kill, and the demanded violence is not carried out.

But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Daniel 3:18 · KJVThe speakers refuse the king’s demand, showing that his authority does not settle what they will do.

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Acts 5:29 · KJVThe apostles state their refusal to let human authority have the final claim on their actions.

THE THREAD

Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’s anointed.

1 Samuel 24:10 · KJV

The paired verse uses the same Hebrew construction, “send forth my hand.” One scene orders hands against the priests; the other names a refusal to send a hand against Saul. The shared root makes the question of whether a hand is sent into violence the hinge of both passages.

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