What Does 2 Kings 1:5 Mean?
And when the messengers turned back to him, he said to them, Why have you now turned back?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back?THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both the messengers’ return and the king’s question about it, making their change of direction the verse’s central mystery.
THE MEANING
The messengers have come back, and the king’s question makes their changed direction impossible to miss. You can see a return before you know what has brought it about.
THE ROOT
וַיָּשֻׁבוּ
vayyashuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
to return, turn back; in some forms, to restore or bring back
Both verbs in the verse grow from שׁוּב (shuv, return or turn back): the messengers return, and the king asks why they have returned. The same root can describe restoration or a turning away, so “turned back” holds more than arrival: it leaves open what this return means.
ALSO GROWS
yeshovev: he restores, turns back
יְשׁוֹבֵב
In Psalm 23:3, this form describes the restoring of the soul, showing how return can also carry the sense of restoration.
meshubah: backsliding, turning away
מְשׁוּבָה
In Jeremiah 3:12, this related word names a turning away, showing that the root can describe a return whose direction or purpose is in question.
THE PATTERN
A return makes a change of direction visible and invites a response.
He turns back my living soul; he leads me in the tracks of alignment for the sake of his nature.Go and call out these words toward the north, and say, Turn back, O turned-away Israel, says the LORD. I will not let my face fall upon you, for I am faithful love, says the LORD. I will not guard my anger forever.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, Turn to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will turn to you, says the LORD of hosts.The same root, שׁוּב (shuv, return or turn back), appears in both directions: “Turn ye unto me” and “I will turn unto you.” In 2 Kings, the king asks why the messengers have returned; here, the root opens the possibility of a return met by another return.
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