What Does 1 Samuel 24:21 Mean in the King James?
Swear now therefore unto me by the LORD, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father’s house.
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 verb for “cut off” also appears in the phrase “cut a covenant,” placing the plea to preserve a family line beside the language of a binding promise.
THE MEANING
The plea gives the fear of erasure a present shape: descendants are “seed,” and a name belongs within a family house. It asks that both a living future and the memory carried by a household continue beyond one person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that a person’s life is only what fits inside their own lifetime: descendants and a remembered name can continue beyond it.
THE ROOT
תַּכְרִית
takhrīt
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
to cut, sever, or cut off
English “cut off” can sound like an isolated act of destruction, but כרת also appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), literally “cut a covenant.” Here, the plea’s severed line sits beside a solemn oath, so the same root carries both severance and covenant-making.
ALSO GROWS
karat: to cut or sever
כָּרַת
This verb names the feared end of the family line.
karat berit: to cut a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The covenant phrase shares the root of “cut off,” linking the plea for continuity with the language of a binding promise.
זַרְעִי
zeraʿi
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
to sow; seed as what is sown
The word זֶרַע (zeraʿ) holds both seed and offspring, joining what is planted now to what grows afterward. The plea concerns a future that can continue beyond its present bearer, a living line that must not be severed.
ALSO GROWS
zaraʿ: to sow
זָרַע
The verb shows the action beneath “seed”: what is sown can grow beyond the moment it is planted.
zeraʿ: seed, offspring
זֶרַע
This noun names the descendants whose continuation the plea places at stake.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures a life continuing beyond its bearer through descendants, household belonging, and an enduring name.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.THE THREAD
And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.The phrase “thy seed after thee” repeats the central image of this verse. Here, the line Saul asks to remain uncut becomes an image of a future established beyond the bearer’s own days.
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