Hebrew Word Study – Crazy – Halal – הֹלֵ֖ל – Hei Lamed Lamed

1 Samuel 21:14:  “And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.”

If you are like me and feel a little disturbed that David, this man of God, had to deceive the King of Gath by pretending to be insane, then let me offer this take on the story for your consideration.  I am not saying I am right, I am only offering an alternative theory for you to ponder. 

Let me give you some background.  Here you have David fleeing from Saul who put a price on David’s head and where does David go for refuge, but to Achish King of Gath or the Philistines.  Remember the Philistines? David bested their champion Goliath and now the Philistines worst enemy runs to them for refuge.  David doesn’t have to pretend to be insane, he had to be insane to go to those who would love nothing better than to lop his  head off.

So he hopes to get by pleading insanity.  Commentators say that insane people were usually left alone as they might be very spiritual.  Maybe, but I got a better idea why David was left alone and he didn’t have to plead insanity. First look at the word used for feigned himself mad. It is just one word and it is not shaga’ like I discussed in an earlier study which is the word used for madness, insanity or craziness.  Here the word is halal.  This is the word where we get hallelujah meaning praise the Lord, or to shine.  If you are going to accuse me of stretching a word to fit my conclusions then I am no more stretching words than the translators who render halal as feigning insanity.   

The passage say David changed his behavior.  The word behavior is ta’am which means judgment, decree or decision. The word  before them is ayin which means insight and perception.  Now the translators stretched another word and that is the word used for changed which is the word shanah which means to repeat, or year.  That is a lot of stretching to get David as insane. But let’s stay with the original meanings of these word without stretching them and see what we get.  Rather than says: “And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands,” we could say:  “David changed their perception of him by repeating a decree or judgment in praising and worshiping God.”  You can’t tell me that David did not have a little Pentecostal breakdown after slaying Goliath.  I believe he just repeated that Pentecostal dance and reminded everyone that: “I am that follower of Jehovah who took down you hero.”  Then he just had a little Charismatic war dance where he scrabbled on the doors of the gate. That word scrabble is tavah, which means to express thanksgiving.  David not only expressed thanksgiving in his praise and worship but wrote them out on the wall for all to see and know who His God was.   

We find the text  also says he let spittle fall on his beard.  The word spittle is riro which is a milky white substance or egg white.  This word originates from a camel who is in heat.  An egg shaped sack falls out of its mouth and he begins to foam a white substance.  This indicates he at the peak of his passion.  The word beard, zagan, also means chin and the word fall is yarad which also means to bow down in worship. You could say David bowed down to his chin in worship of God.  

It was King Achish who said David was shaga’ or crazy although as I pointed out in an earlier study that shaga’ could also be calling out to God. It is also a word associated with a camel calling out to his mate.  My point is, I don’t believe we have to accept at face value that David was a party to deception to save his own gizzard.  I believe the Spirit of God fell upon David and He had a regular Pentecostal break down that totally unnerved everyone around him as they realized that this was the man of God who killed their hero and he was still filled with the power of this God Jehovah.  They were not afraid of David nor did they give David a pass because he was considered insane, they were terrified of David’s God and here he was foaming at the mouth in a rage of passion for this God Jehovah, the Philistines worst nightmare. 

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