What Does 1 Samuel 23:22 Mean in the King James?
Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly.
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
In Hebrew, David’s “foot” and the word for “spy” grow from the same root: the path itself becomes the means of finding him.
THE MEANING
Your movements can leave a trace: where your foot goes, who sees you there, and the pattern another person can follow. The verse shows observation becoming pursuit, as those looking for David use his location and witnesses to narrow the search.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being difficult to find does not make someone untraceable; repeated paths and witnesses can still reveal where they are.
THE ROOT
רַגְלוֹ
raglô
GROWS FROM
רגל
Foot; by extension, going about on foot.
The Hebrew says to learn where David’s foot is. The same root also forms a word for spying, joining the path a person takes to the act of going about to discover where they are.
ALSO GROWS
regel: Foot, a step.
רֶגֶל
This is the noun in the verse: the place where David’s foot falls becomes the clue the searchers are told to find.
rāgal: To go about, spy out.
רָגַל
The same root names the activity of going about to inspect or spy, linking footsteps with surveillance.
עָרוּם יַעֲרִים
ʿārûm yaʿărîm
GROWS FROM
ערם
To act shrewdly or craftily.
The Hebrew repeats the root in its description of David: “he is shrewd; he will act shrewdly.” The English phrase “dealeth very subtilly” hides that repetition, making the doubled characterization sound like a degree of subtlety.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārûm: Shrewd, crafty.
עָרוּם
This adjective describes David as someone whose actions require the searchers to look carefully.
ʿormāh: Craftiness, shrewdness.
עָרְמָה
This noun from the same root shows that the verse is describing a quality and its expression in action.
THE PATTERN
A person’s path remains legible to whoever is watching, and observation can become a means of pursuit.
They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.THE THREAD
And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.Joseph’s word for “spies,” מְרַגְּלִים (meraglim), shares the root רגל with David’s “foot” in this verse. English separates a body part from a spy, but Hebrew links spying with going about on foot: a person’s trail can become the information that locates them.
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