וַיְמֹ֣תְתֵ֔הוּ (way·mō·ṯə·ṯê·hū) in 1 Samuel 17:51: Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine singular
וַיְמֹ֣תְתֵ֔הוּ (way·mō·ṯə·ṯê·hū) in 1 Samuel 17:51
Source Word
First Samuel 17:51 row 11 aligns the selected H4191 form with and killed him after David draws the Philistine's sword.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
And killed him makes David the explicit agent and the Philistine the suffix-marked object at the decisive point of the battle sequence. Killed expresses the causative sense appropriate to H4191 in this Piel occurrence, and him renders the attached third-person masculine singular object.
How To Communicate It
Diagram the narrative chain from the fallen champion to sword, killing, beheading, and flight, then distinguish grammatical causation from moral application.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not use the Piel causative or David's victory as automatic moral authorization for violence in another setting.
- The suffix refers to the Philistine named in the surrounding sentence.
- The form does not itself settle every chronological question in the scene or turn this narrated victory into general permission for violence.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine singular
Piel
ConsecImperf
Third
Masculine
Singular
Not applicable
Waw conjunction
Third person masculine singular
The waw-linked Piel consecutive imperfect advances the narrated action with David as the masculine singular agent, while the attached masculine singular suffix marks the Philistine as the one killed.
The causative verb reports David bringing about the Philistine's death and fixes the agent-object relation before the narrator mentions the beheading.
What The Form Does In This Verse
David's taking of the Philistine's own sword after standing over the fallen warrior
The battle narrative's sequence from sling strike to sword, death, beheading, and the Philistine army's flight
The causative verb reports David bringing about the Philistine's death and fixes the agent-object relation before the narrator mentions the beheading.
The form does not itself settle every chronological question in the scene or turn this narrated victory into general permission for violence.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The form marks the decisive agent and object in the action that ends the champion's threat and triggers the enemy's flight.
The waw-linked Piel consecutive imperfect advances the narrated action with David as the masculine singular agent, while the attached masculine singular suffix marks the Philistine as the one killed.. The causative verb reports David bringing about the Philistine's death and fixes the agent-object relation before the narrator mentions the beheading.. Attached to David's taking of the Philistine's own sword after standing over the fallen warrior. Governed by the battle narrative's sequence from sling strike to sword, death, beheading, and the Philistine army's flight. The form does not itself settle every chronological question in the scene or turn this narrated victory into general permission for violence.
What participant roles does and killed him mark in First Samuel 17:51? David is the agent who causes the Philistine's death, and the attached suffix identifies the Philistine as the object.
Direct: Killed expresses the causative sense appropriate to H4191 in this Piel occurrence, and him renders the attached third-person masculine singular object.
The suffix refers to the Philistine named in the surrounding sentence. The narrative reports both killing and beheading; the morphology alone does not adjudicate questions imported from outside the verse.
Conj-w | V-Piel-ConsecImperf-3ms | 3ms at 1 Samuel 17:51 treated as the whole interpretation: Do not use the Piel causative or David's victory as automatic moral authorization for violence in another setting. David's killing of Goliath treated as a free-standing model for personal violence: Keep "and killed him" connected to וַיְמֹ֣תְתֵ֔הוּ, row 11, and the full 1 Samuel 17:51 clause.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
First Samuel 17:51 row 11 aligns the selected H4191 form with and killed him after David draws the Philistine's sword.
The row 11 witness uses the die lemma causatively for killing the Philistine, distinguishing it from Jonah's wish to die in the Qal infinitive.
The waw-linked Piel consecutive imperfect advances the narrated action with David as the masculine singular agent, while the attached masculine singular suffix marks the Philistine as the one killed.
First Samuel 17:51 closes Goliath's defeat by reporting David's use of the Philistine's sword, the confirmed death, and the enemy army's collapse in fear.
This killing belongs to Israel's narrated conflict with the defiant champion; ethical or theological claims about violence require the whole episode and wider canon, not the Piel stem alone.
Diagram the narrative chain from the fallen champion to sword, killing, beheading, and flight, then distinguish grammatical causation from moral application.
Do not use the Piel causative or David's victory as automatic moral authorization for violence in another setting.