What Does 1 Samuel 24:5 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
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 word rendered “skirt” also means “wing”: David cuts Saul’s garment-wing, while the same word elsewhere names a covering someone can spread over another.
THE MEANING
Your heart can register an outward act as an inward blow; what looks small in your hand can still matter within you. David’s heart strikes him over the piece he removes from Saul’s garment, holding the outer cut and inner impact in one scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a small visible act is automatically harmless. Here, the heart registers the cut of a garment as a blow.
THE ROOT
כָּנָף
kānāph
GROWS FROM
כנף
Wing; extremity, edge, or corner.
כָּנָף (kānāph, wing or edge) names both a bird’s wing and the outer edge of a garment. English “skirt” leaves the wing-image closed, though the same word can describe a covering spread over another.
ALSO GROWS
kānāph: Wing, as of a bird.
כָּנָף
The same noun also names the edge or corner of a garment, so its bird-wing sense is already inside the word translated “skirt.”
kĕnāphekhā: Your wing; your garment edge or covering.
כְּנָפֶךָ
Ruth 3:9 uses this form when Ruth asks for Boaz’s skirt to be spread over her: the garment-wing can be extended as shelter.
וַיַּךְ
wayyak
GROWS FROM
נכה
Strike, smite, or inflict a blow.
“smote” in this verse is wayyak. The verb is the ordinary word for striking, and the same root forms מַכָּה (makkāh, a blow or plague). The verse gives David’s heart the force of an impact: the cut reaches him as something felt, not as a detached thought.
ALSO GROWS
nākhāh: To strike or smite.
נָכָה
The root’s direct action is to land a blow; “heart smote him” keeps that physical force in the inward response.
makkāh: A blow; a plague.
מַכָּה
The noun preserves the root as something that lands upon or afflicts someone, giving the heart’s response more force than a passing pang.
כָּרַת
kārat
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut or sever.
כָּרַת (kārat) means to cut or sever and appears in the phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (kārat berît, “cut a covenant”). The same root can describe removal and a binding act, so “cut off” carries a relational edge beyond the tailoring of cloth.
ALSO GROWS
kĕrîtût: Cutting off; a bill or certificate of divorce.
כְּרִיתוּת
This word for divorce keeps separation in the same root family, showing that the root’s reach extends beyond trimming.
kārat berît: To cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
Scripture uses the same verb for entering a covenant; cutting can enact a bond as well as sever something.
THE PATTERN
The heart makes an outward act inwardly present.
And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)THE THREAD
And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.The word KJV renders “skirt” here is the same כָּנָף (kānāph, wing or garment edge) that appears in Ruth’s request. David cuts Saul’s garment-wing; Ruth’s verse speaks of that wing spread over another, so one word holds both a removed covering and an offered one.
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