What Does 1 Samuel 9:3 Mean in the King James?
And the asses of Kish Saul’s father were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses.
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 lost asses send Saul searching, while his name means “asked for”, the errand already carries the shape of a larger request.
THE MEANING
Something is missing, and the response is movement: take someone with you, rise, go, seek. Loss becomes the beginning of a search, and the seeker’s name holds the sense of one asked for.
THE ROOT
אָבַד
ʾābad
GROWS FROM
אבד
Perish, become lost, disappear.
The root can describe both being missing and perishing, so “lost” carries more than absence: it holds the possibility of disappearance. Here that absence becomes the engine of the verse, setting a search in motion.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōvēd: Perishing; being lost
אָבֵד
It shows the peril carried within the word “lost.”
ʾăvēdāh: A lost thing; loss
אֲבֵדָה
It names the missing object itself, the thing that prompts the search.
שָׁאוּל
Sha'ul
GROWS FROM
שאל
Ask, request, inquire.
Saul’s name comes from the passive form of “ask”: the asked-for one. In a verse where he is sent to seek, the name brings the seeker and the one requested together.
ALSO GROWS
she'elah: A request; a question
שְׁאֵלָה
It makes the sense of asking in Saul’s name explicit.
mish'al: A request; something asked for
מִשְׁאָל
It echoes Saul as the one who is asked for.
בַּקֵּשׁ
baqqēsh
GROWS FROM
בקש
Seek, search for, request.
“seek” in this verse is baqqēsh. The search is an active pursuit, not simply attention to what is missing. The same root can also mean to request, linking the search for the lost with the act of asking.
ALSO GROWS
mevaqqesh: One who seeks
מְבַקֵּשׁ
It names the seeker Saul is commanded to become.
baqqashah: A request; petition
בַּקָּשָׁה
It connects seeking with asking, an echo of Saul’s name.
THE PATTERN
What is lost becomes the focus of an active search.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?THE THREAD
And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them; for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s house?The same root appears again in “lost,” and the sentence answers it with “they are found.” The search reaches its visible end, then the verse opens onto the greater desire carried by Saul’s name and the question that follows.
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