What Does 1 Samuel 22:18 Mean in the King James?
And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
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 king’s command and Doeg’s act repeat the same two Hebrew verbs, so the line lets you hear the order become the massacre.
THE MEANING
Here, a royal command becomes killing: the king directs, Doeg repeats the command’s verbs in action, and eighty-five priests die. The linen ephod keeps their priestly identity in view as the verse names the violence.
THE ROOT
פְגַע
paga
GROWS FROM
פגע
paga
To meet or encounter; according to its form and context, to strike, attack, or intercede.
The verb rendered “fall upon” carries the sense of a violent encounter here. The same root appears in Isaiah’s verb for “made intercession,” so one root can name an encounter that harms or one that pleads for another.
ALSO GROWS
paga: To meet, encounter, or strike.
פָּגַע
This is the root verb behind the attack on the priests.
yaphgia: He intercedes or pleads.
יַפְגִּיעַ
Isaiah 53:12 uses this form for intercession, revealing another direction this encounter-root can take.
סֹב
sov
GROWS FROM
סבב
sabab
To turn, go around, or encircle.
The king says “Turn,” and the narrator says Doeg “turned,” using forms of the same root. The second command verb is repeated in the same way: the wording itself follows the order into the deed.
ALSO GROWS
sabab: To turn, circle, or go around.
סָבַב
This is the verb’s root form, echoed first in the command and then in Doeg’s action.
saviv: Around or all around.
סָבִיב
This related form preserves the root’s sense of movement around a place or boundary.
THE PATTERN
When rulers direct violence through others, the command becomes a deed carried out against bodies.
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.THE THREAD
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.The verb rendered “fall upon” comes from the same root as Isaiah’s “made intercession.” In this verse the encounter is an attack; in Isaiah it is a plea for others.
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