1 Samuel 21:2 BSB — MannaFest

1 Samuel 21:2

“The king has given me a mission,” David replied. “He told me no one is to know about the mission or charge. And I have directed my young men to meet me at a certain place.

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know anything of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.

KJV

And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.

⋯

Commentary

4 voices

John Cassian

CONFERENCE 17.18.1-2 (435)

No wonder that these dispensations were uprightly made use of in the Old Testament and that holy men sometimes lied in praiseworthy or at least in pardonable fashion, since we see that far greater things were permitted them because it was a time of beginnings.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

People should be free with their faithful ministers. David was a man of great faith and courage, and yet now both failed him, and he fell thus foully through fear and cowardice, and both owing to the weakness of his faith. Had he trusted God aright, he would not have used such a sorry sinful shift as this for his own preservation.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible (1832)

The king hath commanded me a business - All said here is an untruth, and could not be dictated by the Spirit of the Lord; but there is no reason to believe that David was under the influence of Divine inspiration at this time. It is well known that from all antiquity it was held no crime to tell a lie, in order to save life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

David probably supposed, like many other persons, that a lie is quite excusable which is told for the sole purpose of saving the speaker's life. But what is essentially sinful, can never, from circumstances, change its immoral character; and David had to repent of this vice of lying (Ps 119:29).

Voices on this verse

loading…

Original language & word study

27 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר	vai.Yo.mer	and he said	H559 →
דָּוִ֜ד	da.Vid	David	H1732 →
לַאֲחִימֶ֣לֶךְ	la.'a.chi.Me.lekh	to Ahimelech	H288 →
הַכֹּהֵ֗ן	ha.ko.Hen	the priest	H3548 →
הַמֶּלֶךְ֮	ha.me.leKh	the king	H4428 →
צִוַּ֣נִי	tzi.Va.ni	he commanded me	H6680 →
דָבָר֒	da.Var	a matter	H1697 →
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר	vai.Yo.mer	and he said	H559 →
אֵלַ֗י	'e.Lai	to me	H413 →
אִ֣ישׁ	'ish	anyone	H376 →
אַל־	'al-	may not	H408 →
יֵ֧דַע	Ye.da'	he know	H3045 →
מְא֛וּמָה	me.'U.mah	anything	H3972 →
אֶת־	'et-	<obj.>	H853 →
הַדָּבָ֛ר	ha.da.Var	the matter	H1697 →
אֲשֶׁר־	'a.Sher-	which	H834 →
אָנֹכִ֥י	'a.no.Khi	I	H595 →
שֹׁלֵֽחֲךָ֖	sho.le.cha.Kha	[am] sending you	H7971 →
וַאֲשֶׁ֣ר	va.'a.Sher	and which	H834 →
צִוִּיתִ֑ךָ	tzi.vi.Ti.kha	I have commanded you	H6680 →
וְאֶת־	ve.'Et	and <obj.>	H853 →
הַנְּעָרִ֣ים	ha.ne.'a.Rim	the young men	H5288 →
יוֹדַ֔עְתִּי	yo.Da'.ti	I have directed	H3045 →
אֶל־	'el-	to	H413 →
מְק֥וֹם	me.Kom	a place of	H4725 →
פְּלֹנִ֖י	pe.lo.Ni	a certain one	H6423 →
אַלְמוֹנִֽי׃	'al.mo.Ni	a certain one	H492 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Colossians 3:9
Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,
leads to
- Ephesians 4:25
  Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
  Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
- Ephesians 4:22
  to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
- Leviticus 19:11
  You must not steal. You must not lie or deceive one another.
- Romans 6:6
  We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
- John 8:44
  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him.…
Through
Galatians 2:12
For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group.
leads to
- Acts 10:28
  He said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure…
- Luke 15:2
  So the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Through
1 Kings 13:18
Then the prophet replied, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that…
leads to
- 1 John 4:1
  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Featured studies on this passage

Walks through 1 Samuel 21

Taw — The Mark of God

The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet — drawn in the Sinaitic script as a cross — appears at the decisive moments of judgment and rescue: the doorposts of Goshen, the foreheads in Jerusalem, the sealing of the 144,000, and the cross at Golgotha.

Open the study →

Walks through 1 Samuel 21

The Showbread

Open the study →

About 1 Samuel

David Slays Goliath — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

1 Samuel: the study guide →Read chapter 21 →The featured study →

PersonUnited MonarchyDavidSecond king of united Israel, shepherd-turned-monarch, ancestor of the Messiah, and traditional author of many Psalms.

Continue: 1 Samuel 21 →

01Commentary

The record, by era

Voices on this verse

02Original language & word study

03The walk

Where the connections lead

04Related verses

05Featured studies on this passage

06About 1 Samuel

The record, by era

Where the connections lead

Commentary

Original language & word study

The walk

Related verses

Featured studies on this passage

About 1 Samuel