What Does 1 Samuel 25:22 Mean in the King James?
So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
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
David makes the absence of any male survivor from Nabal’s household by dawn the measure of his oath.
THE MEANING
David invokes God against his enemies and binds his oath to a brutal condition: by dawn, no male in Nabal’s household is to remain. The phrase “that pisseth against the wall” is a male idiom, making the threat’s scope explicit.
THE ROOT
אַשְׁאִיר
ash'ir
GROWS FROM
שאר
Remain, be left over, survive as a remnant.
The word translated “leave” carries the sense of what remains or survives. David’s oath denies even a male remnant to Nabal’s household by morning.
ALSO GROWS
vayyisha'er: Remained, was left over.
וַיִּשָּׁאֶר
Genesis 7:23 uses this form for Noah and those with him, who remain after destruction; the same root marks who survives.
she'erit: What remains; a surviving remnant.
שְׁאֵרִית
The root can name the remainder itself, sharpening the force of David’s oath: no male remnant is to be left.
THE PATTERN
An oath binds speech to a stated condition or consequence.
And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down.Then king Solomon sware by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life.And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.THE THREAD
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.“Leave” here and “remained” there share שאר (sha’ar, “remain or be left over”), the root of what survives. Genesis names a remnant after destruction; David’s oath uses the same root to deny that any male remnant will survive until dawn.
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