What Does 2 Kings 10:17 Mean?
And when he came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke to Elijah.
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 he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the LORD, which he spake to Elijah.THE KEY
The Hebrew davar can mean both “word” and “matter,” and this verse presents the LORD’s spoken judgment as the violent event that removes every survivor from Ahab’s house.
THE MEANING
The verse holds together a judgment declared and violence enacted: everyone left from Ahab’s house in Samaria is killed. It keeps the human cost visible while calling this destruction the fulfillment of what the LORD spoke to Elijah.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a spoken judgment is only language: here, the verse presents the destruction as the word reaching fulfillment.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, davar can mean a word, matter, or affair.
The verse uses forms of the same root for “saying” and “spake.” That echo makes the judgment more than a quotation: the narrated violence is described as what the spoken word foretold.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or affair
דָּבָר
The word for the LORD’s saying can also name a matter or affair, joining the declaration to what takes place.
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֶּר
This is the verb translated “spake” later in the verse, repeating the root behind “saying.”
הִשְׁמִידוֹ
hishmido
GROWS FROM
שׁמד
To destroy or bring to ruin.
“destroyed” in this verse is hishmido. The word describes destruction carried through to its completion. Its force sits beside “all that remained,” making the verse’s scope explicit: no one left from Ahab’s house in Samaria escapes this killing.
ALSO GROWS
hishmid: Destroy, annihilate
הִשְׁמִיד
This causative form shares the verse’s root and names the act of bringing about destruction.
nishmad: Be destroyed, perish
נִשְׁמַד
This form describes the one undergoing destruction, showing the same root from the other side of the act.
הַנִּשְׁאָרִים
hannish'arim
GROWS FROM
שאר
To remain or be left over.
The people called “those who remained” are a remnant, but remaining is no protection in this sentence. The verse moves from what is left of Ahab’s house to the killing of all of it.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: Remnant, remainder
שְׁאֵרִית
This noun names what is left over, the same condition described by “all that remained.”
nish'ar: Was left, remained
נִשְׁאַר
This verb form shares the verse’s root and makes “remaining” a continuing state, not an escape from what follows.
THE PATTERN
A declared judgment moves from spoken word to an enacted event.
Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will burn out your descendants, and will cut off from Ahab him who pisses against the wall, and the bound and the forsaken in Israel,For I am the LORD. I will speak, and the word I speak shall be done. It shall no more be drawn out. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a word and do it, says the Lord GOD.And they returned and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.THE THREAD
And they returned and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel.The same Hebrew root, דבר (d-b-r), appears in both verses as “word” and “spake.” Here the death of Jezebel is called fulfillment of what Elijah spoke; the verse opens the same link between the spoken judgment and the violence enacted against Ahab’s remaining house.
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