What Does 1 Samuel 26:8 Mean in the King James?
Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.
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 for “delivered” also means “shut in,” yet Abishai turns an enemy’s confinement into permission for an immediate spear strike.
THE MEANING
An adversary can be within reach, and that circumstance can sound like a divine handoff. Abishai takes the opening as permission to strike him down with a spear in one blow. The verse catches the moment when access becomes a claim of authority.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being able to reach an enemy proves that God authorizes me to kill him.
THE ROOT
הִסְגִּיר
hisgir
GROWS FROM
סגר
sagar
To shut, close, or enclose; in this form, to hand over or deliver into another’s custody.
The verse’s “delivered” carries the image of someone shut in or handed over. Abishai treats that enclosure as authorization, though the verb itself describes the enemy’s position, not what David is permitted to do.
ALSO GROWS
vayyisgor: He shut or closed.
וַיִּסְגֹּר
The same root describes the LORD shutting Noah inside the ark, showing how enclosure can mean being held within someone’s power.
soger: One who shuts or closes.
סוֹגֵר
This form keeps the concrete sense of closing visible beneath “handed over”: the enemy is enclosed within David’s reach.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod
Beloved; the same word also names a close male relative, such as an uncle.
David’s name carries the sense of “beloved,” and this proposal is made to the beloved while an enemy is exposed. The name brings the scene’s human relationship into view without deciding what David will choose.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved, or a close male relative such as an uncle.
דּוֹד
This is the word behind David’s name and gives the name its sense of belovedness.
dodim: Loves or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
The plural form extends the same root into affection and desire, adding relational depth to the name spoken in this moment.
אַכֶּנּוּ
akkennu
GROWS FROM
נכה
nakah
To strike, hit, or wound.
“smite” in this verse is akkennu. The root makes the proposal physically exact: Abishai means to strike the enemy down with a spear. Its other forms name the blow and the person struck, keeping the violence in the verse concrete.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
The noun names the force of the strike Abishai proposes.
mukkeh: One who is struck or beaten.
מֻכֶּה
This form puts the bodily consequence on the person Abishai means to hit.
THE PATTERN
An enemy’s vulnerability does not, by itself, make destroying that enemy an act of justice.
And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.THE THREAD
And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.The phrase “delivered me into thine hand” uses the same Hebrew root, סגר, “to shut in” or “hand over.” Saul names the exposed moment and the fact that David did not kill him, echoing the choice Abishai now urges.
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