What Does 1 Samuel 6:4 Mean in the King James?
Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
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 one blow erases the distance between people and rulers: every rank is caught in the same count.
THE MEANING
One blow reaches a whole community and its leaders at once. Its answer takes visible, countable form, so shared harm does not disappear into an abstraction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A title places its holder outside the consequences borne by everyone else.
THE ROOT
מַגֵּפָה
maggēfāh
GROWS FROM
נגף
ngp
to strike or smite
The Hebrew word מַגֵּפָה (maggēfāh, “plague”) grows from the root נגף (ngp, “strike”), picturing affliction as a blow. Calling it one blow on people and rulers reveals a shared exposure across rank.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaph: to strike or smite
נָגַף
This verb makes the force inside “plague” audible: the affliction lands as a blow.
niggaph: to be struck or defeated
נִגַּף
The passive form places those affected on the receiving end of the same strike.
maggēfāh: a plague or widespread affliction
מַגֵּפָה
This noun names the blow that reaches both the people and their lords.
אָשָׁם
asham
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾšm
to incur guilt or liability
אָשָׁם (asham, “guilt” or “trespass offering”) names both liability and the offering associated with it. The liability takes visible, countable form in what is returned.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāšēm: to be guilty or incur liability
אָשֵׁם
The verb reveals the condition the offering answers: being liable for a breach.
ʾāšām: guilt, liability, or a reparation offering
אָשָׁם
The same word holds both the liability and the tangible response together.
נָשִׁיב
nashiv
GROWS FROM
שוב
šwb
to turn back or return
נָשִׁיב (nashiv, “we shall return”) comes from שׁוּב (shuv, “turn back, return”); here the verb carries the sense of bringing something back to its recipient. The response itself traces a return.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: to turn back or return
שׁוּב
This is the root action inside the offerers’ plan to return something.
meshûbāh: a turning away or backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can describe a turn away; here it describes a return that makes the breach answerable.
THE PATTERN
When a breach becomes answerable, the repair takes a tangible, countable form.
And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.THE THREAD
Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.The word rendered “trespass” here shares the root אשם (ʾšm, “incur guilt or liability”) with the offering named in 1 Samuel 6:4. Numbers makes liability a return to the person harmed, while Samuel gives shared damage a counted, visible form.
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