What Does 1 Samuel 3:5 Mean in the King James?
And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.
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
A sincere response can arrive before you know whose voice you are answering.
THE MEANING
You can answer a voice sincerely and still misidentify where it comes from. Samuel runs to Eli before he recognizes who is calling; Eli’s correction brings him back to listen again. The verse holds that uncertainty without treating it as failure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sincere, immediate response proves you have correctly identified who is calling.
THE ROOT
קָרָאתָ
qara'ta
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
To call out or summon.
“calledst” in this verse is qara'ta. English gives you a single act of calling, while קרא (qara, “call”) also names reading aloud: a voice calls words into hearing. Its branch מִקְרָא (miqra, “convocation” or “public reading”) extends that movement from a voice to a gathered response.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To read aloud.
קָרָא
The same root can describe spoken words brought into hearing, showing that a call is something voiced and received.
miqra: Convocation; public reading.
מִקְרָא
This branch carries the root from one voice to people gathered to hear.
THE PATTERN
A call becomes personal through a hearer’s answer, while recognition may unfold after the first response.
And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.THE THREAD
And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.The Hebrew repeats קָרָא (qara, “called”) and הִנֵּנִי (hineni, “Here I am”), the same two hinges that shape Samuel’s encounter. Here, too, the answer is present before the moment’s full meaning is clear.
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