What Does 1 Samuel 7:3 Mean in the King James?
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
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
Return here is a directional change with visible subtraction: rival gods are removed, the heart is set toward the LORD, and the LORD pulls you out of the Philistines’ grasp.
THE MEANING
Your return to the LORD is whole-hearted and visible: rival gods are put away, your heart is set toward him, and your service belongs to him alone. The hand holding you does not define the final boundary; the LORD is the one who delivers you from it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that inward sincerity can coexist with untouched rival loyalties: here, the whole-hearted turn includes putting foreign gods away and serving the LORD alone.
THE ROOT
שָׁבִים
shavim
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
The root שׁוּב (shuv) means to turn back or return.
The root שׁוּב (shuv, turn back or return) carries direction in the act itself; its branch מְשׁוּבָה (meshubah, turning away or backsliding) names the opposite drift. Read beside the commands to remove rival gods and set the heart toward the LORD, return becomes a whole reorientation, not a feeling alone.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn back; return
שׁוּב
This is the root in the verse’s word for returning, so the movement toward the LORD is built into the word.
meshubah: Turning away; backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch names the drift that return reverses: the heart changes direction.
הָכִינוּ
hakhinu
GROWS FROM
כון
The root כון (kun) means to establish, set firm, or make ready.
“prepare” in this verse is hakhinu. The verse uses this root for the heart set toward the LORD, so preparing it means giving it a settled orientation, not only a passing readiness. A heart made ready is pictured through the same root as something established and firm.
ALSO GROWS
makhon: A fixed place; a foundation or dwelling place
מָכוֹן
The root can name a place made firm, deepening the image of a heart established toward the LORD.
nakhon: Established; firm; ready
נָכוֹן
This branch joins readiness with stability, showing that the heart is set in a lasting direction.
וְיַצֵּל
weyatsel
GROWS FROM
נצל
The root נצל (natsal) means to rescue or snatch away; it can also describe stripping something away.
“deliver” in this verse is weyatsel. The root נצל (natsal, rescue or strip away) gives deliverance the force of extraction. Here the LORD takes Israel from the Philistines’ hand; elsewhere the same root describes Israel stripping Egypt of its goods, so the captor’s grasp is not treated as permanent.
ALSO GROWS
hitsil: He rescued; delivered
הִצִּיל
This form shows the root’s direct sense of pulling someone out of danger or another’s grasp.
waynatselu: They stripped; plundered
וַיְנַצְּלוּ
The same root describes Israel stripping Egypt of its goods in Exodus 12:36, giving rescue the concrete sense of extraction from a captor’s hold.
THE PATTERN
Whole-hearted return becomes visible as rival gods are put away and service is directed to the LORD alone.
And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;THE THREAD
And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.Jeremiah uses the same root שׁוּב (shuv, return) and the same whole-heart language. It opens Samuel’s verse further by naming the heart’s return as something God gives, while Samuel’s words show its lived shape: rivals removed and service centered on the LORD.
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