What Does 1 Samuel 5:10 Mean in the King James?
Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
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 ark is sent away, yet its arrival is heard as death: shalach holds release and arrival within the same movement.
THE MEANING
When what arrives feels lethal, fear extends beyond the self to the people bound up with you. The cry says that plainly: the Ekronites believe the ark has been brought to kill them and their people.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ
vayishlechu
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
to send forth, release, or let go
English can make “sent” sound like simple transport, while shalach also carries the sense of releasing something away. The ark moves from one city to another, and the fear attached to it moves with it: what one place sends away becomes another place’s arrival.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: sending away; dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the act of sending the ark away audible as an attempt to release it from one place.
shaliach: a messenger; one who is sent
שָׁלִיחַ
A shaliach carries a sending into another place, as the ark’s transfer carries the crisis into Ekron.
Shiloach: Sent; the name of the pool in John 9:7
שִׁילֹחַ
The same root appears in the name of the pool where washing is followed by sight, showing that what is sent carries consequences beyond its movement.
THE PATTERN
When divine presence is felt as lethal, communities name death as the danger and seek distance from that presence.
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.THE THREAD
And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.Siloam, interpreted as “Sent,” echoes the root שׁלח (sh-l-ḥ, send forth) in “they sent” here. In 1 Samuel the sent ark arrives amid fear of death; in John the pool called Sent is where washing is followed by sight.
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