1 Samuel 25:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 25:1
And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
to die (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Israelites
יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
together
וַיִּקָּבְצ֤וּvai.yi.ka.ve.Tzu
H6908
to grasp · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
lamented
וַיִּסְפְּדוּvai.yis.pe.du-
H5594
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
buried
וַיִּקְבְּרֻ֥הוּvai.yik.be.Ru.hu
H6912
to inter · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
house
בְּבֵית֖וֹbe.vei.To
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Ramah
בָּרָמָ֑הba.ra.Mah
H7414
Ramah · preposition with the article + proper noun, a place name
David
דָּוִ֔דda.Vid
H1732
David · proper noun, a man's name
arose
וַיָּ֣קָםvai.Ya.kom
H6965
to rise (in various applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
down
וַיֵּ֖רֶדvai.Ye.red
H3381
to descend (literally · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wilderness
מִדְבַּ֥רmid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · noun, common masculine singular construct
Paran
פָּארָֽןpa.Ran
H6290
Paran · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 28:3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had fa…
Numbers 20:29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
Deuteronomy 34:8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
2 Chronicles 33:20 So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
Genesis 21:21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Numbers 10:12 And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.
Acts 8:2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
Numbers 13:3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 25:1
We have here a short account of Samuel's death and burial. 1. Though he was a great man, and one that was admirably well qualified for public service, yet he spent the latter end of his days in retirement and obscurity, not because he was superannuated (for he knew how to preside in a college of the prophets, Sa1 19:20), but because Israel had rejected him, for which God thus justly chastised them, and because his desire was to be quiet and to enjoy himself and his God in the exercises of devotion now in his advanced years, and in this desire God graciously indulged him. Let old people be willing to rest themselves, though it look like burying themselves alive. 2. Though he was a firm friend…
And Samuel died - Samuel lived, as is supposed, about ninety-eight years; was in the government of Israel before Saul from sixteen to twenty years; and ceased to live, according to the Jews, about four months before the death of Saul; but according to Calmet and others, two years. But all this is very uncertain; how long he died before Saul, cannot be ascertained. For some account of his character, see the end of the chapter, Sa1 25:44 (note).
Buried him in his house - Probably this means, not his dwelling-house, but the house or tomb he had made for his sepulture; and thus the Syriac and Arabic seem to have understood it.
David - went down to the wilderness of Paran - This was either on the…
And Samuel died,.... In the interval, when Saul and David were parted, and before they saw each other again; according to the Jewish chronology (g), Samuel died four months before Saul; but other Jewish writers say (h) he died seven months before; Abarbinel thinks it was a year or two before; which is most likely and indeed certain, since David was in the country of the Philistines after this a full year and four months, if the true sense of the phrase is expressed in 1 Samuel 27:7; and Saul was not then dead; and so another Jewish chronologer (i) says, that Saul died two years after Samuel, to which agrees Clemens of Alexandria (k); and according to the Jews (l), he died the twentieth of Ij…
The Church Fathers
(I Reg. XXV.) Samuel died, etc. The shadow predicting truth to come waned with the dawning Gospel, nor could the people be removed from the rites of the customary ceremonies without sorrow, which they did not doubt had been established by the institution of the divine law. Hence James, speaking to the apostle Paul, said: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and they are all zealous for the law" (Acts 21). Yet, as the custom of Judaizing gradually ceased in the Church, just as the prophet's lifeless members were removed from human view, they were laid in their house in Ramah, that is, in a high place; because while the sacraments of the law had ceased to be celebrated outwardly, all began to be sought, understood, and tested inwardly in Christ and the Church. Indeed, the prophet's house is the church of the believers, and this is situated in that high place, of which it is written: "And the Most High has established her" (Psalm 86). And elsewhere: "For he is exalted" (Isaiah 2).
But David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. Paran is interpreted as wild ass, or fruitful, or their fierceness. Therefore, with the type of prophecy ceasing, and with Rama, that is in Christ, as it is said, and the Church fulfilled, Judea being left behind, the truth of faith has deigned to approach the nations long wild and of untamed spirit, but now about to be fruitful with the fruit of justice. And not only because of its wild or fierce name, but also because of its fierce and savage inhabitants, Paran is most fittingly suitable to signify the nations. For Scripture narrates that Ishmael, from whom the Saracens descend, lived in the wilderness of Paran, he concerning whom it is said: "Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman" (Gen. XXI). The son of the free woman, that is, the people renewed by spiritual grace, dreading the turbulent neighborhood, complains, saying: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged, I have dwelt among the tents of Kedar" (Psalm CXIX), and so forth, until the end of the psalm, which describe the Saracens as special adversaries of the Church in a general manner. But so that Christ might call also the sons of the bondwoman, that is, the people serving this world, to freedom, and make them sons of the promise like Isaac, He descended to the wilderness of Paran, that is, the humbled hearts of the Gentiles, and infused them with the grace of His mercy.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Booty — Captives or cattle or objects of value taken in war. In Canaan all that breathed were to be destroyed (Deut. 20: 16). The “pictures and images” of the Canaanites were to be destroyed also (Num.…
Burial — The first burial we have an account of is that of Sarah (Gen. 23). The first commercial transaction recorded is that of the purchase of a burial-place, for which Abraham weighed to Ephron “four…
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Gardens — Mentioned in Scripture, of Eden (Gen. 2:8, 9); Ahab’s garden of herbs (1 Kings 21:2); the royal garden (2 Kings 21:18); the royal garden at Susa (Esther 1:5); the garden of Joseph of Arimathea (John…
Grave — Among the ancient Hebrews graves were outside of cities in the open field (Luke 7:12; John 11:30). Kings (1 Kings 2:10) and prophets (1 Sam. 25:1) were generally buried within cities. Graves were…
Mourn — Frequent references are found in Scripture to, (1.) Mourning for the dead. Abraham mourned for Sarah (Gen. 23:2); Jacob for Joseph (37:34, 35); the Egyptians for Jacob (50:3-10); Israel for Aaron…
Nabal — Foolish, a descendant of Caleb who dwelt at Maon (1 Sam. 25), the modern Main, 7 miles south-east of Hebron. He was “very great, and he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats...but the man was churlish and…
Paran — Abounding in foliage, or abounding in caverns, (Gen. 21:21), a desert tract forming the north-eastern division of the peninsula of Sinai, lying between the ‘Arabah on the east and the wilderness of…
Ramah — (a hill). This is the name of several places in the holy land.
Samuel — Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly…
This episode about Nabal falls between two accounts in which Saul pursued David and David spared Saul’s life. Nabal was similar to Saul.
25:1 Maon: This town in southern Judah (see study note on 23:24) was likely Nabal’s home. The wilderness of Paran, located in the northern half of the Sinai Peninsula, was too far south. The wilderness of Paran served as a place of refuge (Gen 21:21; 1 Kgs 11:18).
Paran · David takes refuge in — David takes refuge in
Ramah · .Samuel dies and was buried in — .Samuel dies and was buried in
Samuel · General references — General references
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
