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1 Samuel 25:8

in 1 Samuel 25

Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on the day of a feast. Please give whatever you can afford to your servants and to your son David.’”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Ask thy young men, and they will tell thee: wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes; for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thy hand, unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

KJV

Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

This verse in 1 Samuel 25

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Whatsoever cometh to thine hand - As thou art making a great feast for thy servants, and I and my men, as having essentially served thee, would naturally come in for a share were we present; send a portion by my ten young men, for me and my men, that we also may rejoice with you. Certainly this was a very reasonable and a very modest request. This mode of address is not unfrequent among the Hindoos: “O father, fill the belly of thy son; he is in distress.”

This site's exposition

When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them

on 1 Samuel 25:7-8

David's servants state a real claim, for his men guarded Nabal's shepherds and took nothing. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that those who protected a flockmaster's herds could expect a share of the shearing-time provision. Nabal's refusal is therefore the breaking of a debt his own servants knew was owed.

This site's exposition

we have come on the day of a feast

David signs himself your son, and Adam Clarke calls the whole request reasonable and modest. Matthew Henry notes what the restraint had cost. The men who gathered to David at 22:2 were in distress and debt, and keeping them from Nabal's flocks took steady command.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Samuel · Written before 735.

proposed

Now therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes, etc. Because, they say, you teach the people, which is to intellectually shear the flock, ensure that even the disciples of Christ preaching may find in you the grace of faith and good action. …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Ask thy young men, and they will show thee,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Yet, considering the character of David's men, men in distress, and debt, and discontented, and the scarcity of provisions in his camp, it was not without a great deal of care and good management that they were kept from plundering.

The words behind it

23 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • שְׁאַ֨לask

    shealH7592 →171 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • נְעָרֶ֜יךָown young men your

    neareikhaH5288 →239 times

  • וְיַגִּ֣ידוּso they may tell

    veyagiduH5046 →370 times

  • לָ֗ךְto <the> you

    lakh

  • וְיִמְצְא֨וּand let them find

    veyimtzeuH4672 →455 times

  • הַנְּעָרִ֥יםthe young men

    hanearimH5288 →239 times

  • חֵן֙favor

    chenH2580 →69 times

  • בְּעֵינֶ֔יךָin view your

    beeineikhaH5869 →887 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • י֥וֹםa day

    yomH3117 →2304 times

  • ט֖וֹבgood

    tovH2896 →538 times

  • בָּ֑נוּwe have come

    banuH935 →2568 times

  • תְּנָה־give !

    tenah-H5414 →2011 times

  • נָּ֗אplease

    na'H4994 →404 times

  • אֵת֩<obj.>

    ʾetH853 →10935 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֨ר[that] which

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • תִּמְצָ֤אit will find

    timtza'H4672 →455 times

  • יָֽדְךָ֙hand your

    yadekhaH3027 →1618 times

  • לַעֲבָדֶ֔יךָto servants your

    laavadeikhaH5650 →799 times

  • וּלְבִנְךָ֖and to son your

    ulevinkhaH1121 →4930 times

  • לְדָוִֽד׃to David

    ledavidH1732 →999 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Samuel 24:11

    See, my father, look at the corner of your robe in my hand. For I cut it off, but I did not kill you. See and know that there is no evil or rebellion…

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 26:20

      So do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the LORD. For the king of Israel has come out to look for a flea, like one who hunts…

    • 1 Samuel 23:14

      And David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God would not deliver David into his hand.

    • 1 Samuel 23:23

      Observe and find out all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will search him out…

  • Through

    Esther 9:19

    This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts…

    it leads to

    • Esther 8:17

      In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves…

    • Nehemiah 8:10–12

      Then Nehemiah told them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve,…

    • Revelation 11:10

      And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

    • Esther 9:22

      as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to…

    • Deuteronomy 16:14

      And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Samuel

Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.
Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.