What Does 1 Samuel 23:10 Mean in the King James?
Then said David, O LORD God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.
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 line sets two forms of power against each other: David names himself by service, while Saul’s purpose is expressed with a root that also means to ruin or corrupt.
THE MEANING
A threat tied to you can reach the people around you; the danger here spreads from one person to an entire city. It is named plainly before the God of Israel, without disguising the scale of what is at risk.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that danger aimed at one person stays private: Saul’s pursuit of David endangers a whole city.
THE ROOT
לְשַׁחֵת
leshachēt
GROWS FROM
שחת
shachat
To ruin, spoil, or corrupt.
“destroy” in this verse is leshachēt. The root carries the sense of corruption and ruin alongside destruction. Saul’s stated purpose threatens Keilah itself, not only David.
ALSO GROWS
mashchit: Destroyer (Exodus 12:23).
מַשְׁחִית
The same root can name the agent of ruin as well as the act, giving the threat against Keilah a wider force.
tashchitun: You corrupt yourselves (Deuteronomy 4:16).
תַּשְׁחִתוּן
The root also describes corruption, showing how ruin can spoil what should remain whole.
עַבְדְּךָ
avdekha
GROWS FROM
עבד
avad
To work or serve.
The word comes from the root for working and serving, so “servant” describes enacted service, not merely a title. David’s self-description stands in sharp contrast with the ruin he reports Saul intends.
ALSO GROWS
eved: Servant; one who serves.
עֶבֶד
This is the noun David uses of himself in addressing God.
avodah: Work or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This related noun keeps service linked to labor and action.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod
Beloved.
David’s name carries the sense of belovedness through its connection to dod. Beside his word “servant,” the name adds a note of relationship to a prayer that speaks openly of danger.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also a kinsman or uncle, depending on context.
דּוֹד
This word-family gives the name David its relational resonance.
dodim: Loves or expressions of love, as in Song of Songs 1:2.
דּוֹדִים
The related form keeps the name connected with affection and belovedness.
THE PATTERN
A threat is brought into speech before God without being made smaller.
And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,THE THREAD
For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.“The destroyer” is מַשְׁחִית (mashchit), from the same root שחת as “destroy” in David’s warning. The shared root lets the threat to Keilah register as the force of ruin itself, not merely a king’s movement against one man.
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