What Does 1 Samuel 6:9 Mean in the King James?
And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us.
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
What the KJV calls “chance” is מִקְרֶה (miqreh, an occurrence that befalls), so the verse leaves the cause unresolved until the outcome is seen.
THE MEANING
When harm reaches you, its reality can be clear while its cause remains uncertain. Here the speakers hold two readings open, an intentional hand and an event that has befallen them, until the observed path gives them grounds to distinguish the two.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A painful event by itself does not prove that God has directly struck you; the verse separates what happened from the question of whose hand caused it.
THE ROOT
מִקְרֶה
miqreh
GROWS FROM
קרה
q-r-h (qārāh): to happen, meet, or befall
The word rendered “chance” grows from the language of what happens or befalls someone; the root names the occurrence without deciding its cause. That leaves the verse’s central question open: did a hand bring this harm, or did it simply come upon them?
ALSO GROWS
qārāh: To happen to or meet someone; to befall.
קָרָה
This verb is the seed of מִקְרֶה, showing that “chance” can carry the sense of an event that comes upon someone.
hiqərāh: To cause an event or encounter to happen.
הִקְרָה
This causative form makes agency explicit, sharpening the verse’s distinction between an event and the question of who brought it about.
וּרְאִיתֶם
urəʾitem
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h (rāʾāh): to see, look at, or perceive
“see” in this verse is urəʾitem. The speakers first watch the cows’ course, then say they will know what caused the harm. The sequence makes their judgment answerable to what can be seen.
ALSO GROWS
marʾeh: What is seen or appears.
מַרְאֶה
The cows’ route becomes the visible sign by which the speakers interpret what has happened.
rōʾeh: A person who sees or observes.
רֹאֶה
This branch keeps the observer in view: their claim about the unseen cause follows what they witness.
THE PATTERN
When the cause of harm is uncertain, competing explanations are tested against an observable outcome.
Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.THE THREAD
All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.The noun translated “event” here (מִקְרֶה, miqreh, an occurrence) and the verb “happeneth” (יִקְרֶה, yiqreh, happens) share the root קָרָה (qārāh, to happen or befall). The shared root names what occurs, while leaving the question of its cause open.
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