What Does 2 Kings 13:16 Mean?
And he said to the king of Israel, Set your hand upon the bow. And he set his hand upon it, and Elisha set his hands upon the king's hands.
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 he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king’s hands.THE KEY
English says “put” twice, but Hebrew first makes the king mount his hand onto the bow, then depicts Elisha setting his hands on the king’s.
THE MEANING
Your action is embodied here: the king’s hand is on the bow while Elisha’s hands rest on his. The image holds personal movement and another’s guidance together in one moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that receiving help means being replaced: the king still holds the bow as Elisha’s hands meet his.
THE ROOT
הַרְכֵּב
harkev
GROWS FROM
רכב
Ride, mount; in a causative form, make something ride or mount upon something.
“Put ... upon” in this verse is harkev. The king’s command and response use הַרְכֵּב (harkev, “mount/cause to ride”) and וַיַּרְכֵּב (wayyarkev, “he mounted/made ride”), both from רכב (rakav, “ride, mount”). Elisha’s later “put” is וַיָּשֶׂם (wayyasem, “and he set/placed”), from שים (sim, “set/place”), so the verse shifts from mounting the king’s hand on the bow to setting the prophet’s hands on the king’s.
ALSO GROWS
rokhev: A person riding or mounted.
רֹכֵב
The root names the one who rides, showing the motion held inside the command to place the king’s hand on the bow.
rekhev: A conveyance that is ridden.
רֶכֶב
This branch preserves the root’s sense of being mounted or carried, giving the command a more active shape than a generic placement.
THE PATTERN
Hands become the visible point where one person’s support or guidance meets another person’s movement.
But Moses' hands were heavy. And they took a stone and set it under him, and he sat upon it. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on this side and the other on that side, and his hands were steady until the sun went down.And he took the blind man by the hand, and brought him out of the village; and when he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw anything.And Ananias went his way and entered the house, and setting his hands upon him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who was seen by you on the road as you came, has sent me, so that you might look up again and be filled with the Set-Apart Breath.THE THREAD
And he made him ride in the second chariot which he had, and they cried out before him, Bend the knee! And he set him over all the land of Egypt.The Hebrew behind “he made him to ride” uses רכב (rakav, “ride, mount”), the same root as the command translated “Put thine hand” here. That root gives the king’s hand an active relation to the bow; Elisha then closes the scene with a different verb, setting his hands on the king’s.
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