What Does 1 Samuel 7:14 Mean in the King James?
And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
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 Hebrew says the cities return, Israel’s territory is pulled from the Philistines’ grasp, and shalom, wholeness, stands between Israel and the Amorites.
THE MEANING
What has been taken from you need not be beyond return: what is held can be released and restored. This verse holds territorial recovery together with shalom, wholeness, between Israel and the Amorites, so restoration reaches past a boundary into relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what has been taken is gone for good, or that recovery must leave only hostility behind.
THE ROOT
וַתָּשֹׁבְנָה
vatashovnah
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
To turn back; to return.
Under “restored” is the motion of שוב (shuv, turn or return): the cities turn back to Israel. The same root describes the living soul being brought back in Psalm 23:3, so restoration here carries the sense of return after displacement.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Turns back; returns.
שָׁב
The same root is used as captivity is turned back, placing the cities’ return within a wider movement from displacement toward homecoming.
yeshovev: Brings back or restores the living soul.
יְשׁוֹבֵב
The root also names restoration within a person, extending the verse’s motion of return from territory to inner life.
הִצִּיל
hitzil
GROWS FROM
נצל
natsal
To snatch away or pull free; to deliver, and in some forms to strip away.
Here הִצִּיל (hitzil, delivered) describes Israel pulling its territory out of the Philistines’ hand. Forms from נצל (natsal, snatch away or deliver) can also describe taking goods from another’s possession, making the transfer out of a holder’s control visible within the word.
ALSO GROWS
hatzalah: Deliverance or rescue.
הַצָּלָה
The same root names deliverance arising for a people, echoing the release of territory in this verse.
venitzaltem: To take away or strip goods from another’s possession.
וְנִצַּלְתֶּם
This form shows the root’s wider motion of removing something from another’s control, sharpening the sense of territory freed from the Philistines’ hand.
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
The verse’s שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) comes from שלם (sh-l-m), a root of completeness and soundness. Its family includes שִׁלֵּם (shillem, repay or make good), giving the peace between Israel and the Amorites a shade of restored relation, not merely quiet.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the verse’s shalom legible as a condition of wholeness between peoples.
shillem: To repay, make good, or fulfill.
שִׁלֵּם
The same root family links wholeness with what is made good or brought to completion.
THE PATTERN
What is held under another’s power can be released, and release can open into restored life.
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.THE THREAD
I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.The Hebrew נצל (natsal, snatch away or deliver) appears in both verses: here Israel’s territory is delivered from the Philistines’ hand, and there the speaker is delivered from fear. The same root carries release from an outward grip and from an inward one.
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