What Does 1 Samuel 5:9 Mean in the King James?
And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
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 hand that strikes the city reaches every body, small and great, binding civic upheaval to private affliction.
THE MEANING
The verse presents the LORD’s hand as an active force that unsettles a whole city and wounds bodies at their most private. No social scale escapes it: small and great are struck. Public upheaval and hidden bodily affliction belong to one event.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that carrying or possessing a sacred object makes a people invulnerable dissolves here: after the ark is carried about, the city’s affliction still comes.
THE ROOT
מְהוּמָה
mehumah
GROWS FROM
הָמַם
hamam
To confuse, discomfit, or throw into panic.
The noun translated “destruction” grows from a verb for throwing into confusion or panic, so the city is not only damaged; it is plunged into disorder. The root keeps the scene moving as turmoil, alongside the bodily affliction.
ALSO GROWS
hemim: He confused or discomfited.
הֵמִם
This verbal form shows the root as an action that disrupts and overwhelms.
mehumah: Confusion, turmoil, or panic.
מְהוּמָה
This is the city’s upheaval: the affliction reaches beyond individual bodies into public disorder.
וַיַּךְ
wayyak
GROWS FROM
נכה
nakah
To strike or smite.
“smote” in this verse is wayyak. The root holds the striking action together with מַכָּה (makkah), a blow or plague. English separates the act from its consequences; the Hebrew root keeps the inflicted blow in view as the men, both small and great, are struck.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: To strike or smite.
נָכָה
This verb names the force applied to the men of the city.
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
This branch shows the strike as an affliction that lands on the body.
וַיִּסָּתְרוּ
wayyissateru
GROWS FROM
סתר
satar
To hide or conceal.
The verb comes from סתר, “to hide,” adding a hiddenness echo to the KJV’s “secret parts.” The affliction is intimate and concealed even as the verse describes a citywide upheaval.
ALSO GROWS
seter: A hiding place or secret.
סֵתֶר
This branch gives the root’s sense of what is concealed, echoing the bodily location named in the KJV.
mistar: A hiding place or place of concealment.
מִסְתָּר
This branch reinforces the verse’s movement between hidden bodily suffering and visible civic disorder.
THE PATTERN
In these texts, divine judgment reaches beyond public authority into bodies and communal life.
And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.THE THREAD
And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods.The same Hebrew noun טְחֹרִים (tehorim, tumors) returns as images of the tumors beside the ark. What this verse presents as hidden bodily affliction reappears as an object they make and send away with the captured ark.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us