What Does 1 Samuel 30:21 Mean in the King James?
And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them.
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 (דָּוִד, David, “beloved”) comes near to those who cannot keep pace and asks after their שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”), so the verse makes care, not capacity, the sign of belonging.
THE MEANING
Your limits do not place you outside the people. The weary are still met as part of the group, and David comes near to ask after their wholeness and well-being. The scene holds a pause inside belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that you belong only while you can keep up. Here, exhaustion does not put anyone outside the circle of care.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
“peace” in this verse is shalom. The Hebrew phrase behind “saluted them” asks after שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness and well-being). The greeting is an inquiry into the men’s condition: David’s first act toward those who could not continue is to ask whether they are whole.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the greeting’s concern concrete: it asks after the men’s intactness and well-being.
shillem: To repay or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch carries the sense of restoring what is due or making something complete, adding depth to wholeness beyond a polite greeting.
וַיֹּשִׁיבֵם
wayyoshivem
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
To sit, settle, or dwell.
The verb translated “abide” comes from the root for sitting and dwelling: David settles the exhausted men by the brook while the others continue. Their pause is part of the group’s journey; the text does not cast them out of it.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, dwell, or remain.
יָשַׁב
This is the root’s basic movement: staying in a place rather than continuing onward.
moshav: A dwelling place or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch gives the root a settled place, echoing the men remaining at the brook while still belonging to the company.
THE PATTERN
Care preserves a person’s place in the community even when exhaustion stops their movement.
For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.THE THREAD
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.Both passages join שָׁאַל (sha’al, “ask”) to שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”): David asks after the men’s well-being, and Psalm 122 asks after Jerusalem’s. What the KJV renders as a salutation is a real inquiry into whether people are whole.
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