What Does 1 Samuel 28:15 Mean in the King James?
And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
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 for “sore distressed” is literally “it is exceedingly narrow for me”: the search for an answer begins inside a world that feels squeezed almost shut.
THE MEANING
When your way ahead feels narrow, silence can make the need for direction feel absolute. The verse holds the cost of that pressure without softening it: one voice says it has been disturbed and brought up, while another reaches beyond death for an answer. It shows how urgently the search for guidance can press against a boundary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that desperation makes every route to an answer harmless: the summoned voice names its own disturbance.
THE ROOT
צַר־לִי מְאֹד
tsar-li me'od
GROWS FROM
צרר
ts-r-r
To bind, press in, or constrict; to make narrow.
“sore distressed” in this verse is tsar-li me'od. The Hebrew phrase says, “narrow to me exceedingly,” so distress is pictured as reduced space, not merely a passing mood. Saul’s urgent question about what to do rises from that constriction.
ALSO GROWS
metzar: A strait or confined place.
מֵצַר
Psalm 118:5 uses this word for distress, then pairs the cry from that narrow place with being set in a large place.
tsarah: A condition of trouble or pressure.
צָרָה
This branch carries the same sense of being pressed in, illuminating how Saul’s crisis closes around him.
הִרְגַּזְתַּנִי
hirgiztani
GROWS FROM
רגז
r-g-z
To quake, tremble, or become agitated.
“disquieted” in this verse is hirgiztani. The verb makes Samuel the one being shaken by the summons: the disturbance is more than a mild interruption. The next words give it a physical direction, he has been brought up.
ALSO GROWS
ragaz: To shake or tremble.
רָגַז
This bodily sense gives “disquieted” the force of being shaken, not simply bothered.
rogez: Trembling or inward agitation.
רֹגֶז
The noun preserves the root’s sense of disturbance as an unsettled state, which Samuel directly names.
THE PATTERN
When pressure narrows a person’s world, the cry for a way through becomes unmistakable.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.The Hebrew word translated “distress” is מֵצַר (metzar, “narrow place”), from the same צרר root as Saul’s “sore distressed.” The verse makes the hidden geometry plain: a cry comes from narrowness, and the answer sets the speaker in spaciousness.
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