What Does 1 Samuel 25:38 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.
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 sets the fatal blow beside a name meaning “fool,” yet never says the name explains the death.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you with an unsoftened claim: the LORD strikes Nabal, and Nabal dies. The ten days mark a span whose details this sentence does not fill.
THE ROOT
וַיִּגֹּף
wayyiggōph
GROWS FROM
נגף
To strike or strike down; the same root also carries the sense of a plague.
The verb translated “smote” belongs to a root that can describe striking down and the noun for a plague. The line holds a direct blow and an affliction in the same word-family, then states plainly that the outcome is death.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaph: To strike, strike down, or stumble against.
נָגַף
This verbal branch keeps the force of the LORD’s action visible in the verse.
maggēphāh: Plague, a striking affliction.
מַגֵּפָה
The same root can name both a blow and a wider affliction, deepening the force of “smote.”
נָבָל
nāḇāl
GROWS FROM
נבל
To be foolish or senseless; also to wither or fade.
Nabal’s name carries the sense “fool” and belongs to a root also used for withering. A related noun means “carcass,” an unnerving echo beside “that he died”; the echo sharpens the wording but does not explain his death.
ALSO GROWS
nāḇāl: A fool, a senseless one.
נָבָל
This is the word sense carried by Nabal’s name, giving the name itself a nature rather than leaving it as a label.
neḇēlāh: A carcass, a dead body.
נְבֵלָה
This related word places the root-family beside the verse’s death, without claiming that the name causes or justifies it.
THE PATTERN
These verses name divine judgment as a cause of bodily death, without softening the outcome.
And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.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 verb is נָגַף (nāgaph, “to strike”) in both places: here it strikes Nabal, while Exodus uses it for the blow against Egypt and the blow withheld from the marked houses. One root holds both lethal impact and protection from impact, opening the verse’s striking verb into a wider pattern.
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