And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.
Parallel translations
- WEB Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, “As Yahweh lives, no punishment will happen to you for this thing.”
- BSB Then Saul swore to her by the LORD: “As surely as the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this.”
- NKJV And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”
- NASB So Saul swore an oath to her by the Lord, saying, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”
- NLT But Saul took an oath in the name of the Lord and promised, “As surely as the Lord lives, nothing bad will happen to you for doing this.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Saul swears by the LORD that no punishment will come to her. He invokes God's name to sanction a God-forbidden act.
Overview
To reassure the woman, Saul takes an oath in the name of Yahweh, the very God whose law he is breaking. The blasphemous irony is stark: he pledges by the LORD to protect an act the LORD condemns. This jarring contradiction reveals how deeply Saul's conscience has become divided and darkened.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 2 Sam 14:11Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.
- Mark 6:23And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.
- 1 Sam 14:39For, as the LORD liveth, which saveth Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people that answered him.
- Matt 26:72And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man.
- 1 Sam 19:6And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain.
- Gen 3:5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
- Deut 18:10–12There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
- Exod 20:7Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 28:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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