What Does 2 Kings 15:37 Mean?
In those days the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah.
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
In those days the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “send” also means “release”: the threat is not merely arriving; it is being set loose against Judah.
THE MEANING
This verse leaves a hard possibility in view now: opposition can be named as something the LORD begins to send, rather than as an event outside divine agency. “Began” marks an onset, not a resolution, and the threat remains fully in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that hostile events must lie wholly outside divine agency: the verse names the LORD as the one who begins this sending.
THE ROOT
לְהַשְׁלִיחַ
ləhašlîaḥ
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth, release, let go.
“send against” in this verse is ləhašlîaḥ. This causative form of שׁלח pictures hostile power being set in motion toward Judah; “send” carries the force of release without implying rescue. The same root appears in “Let my people go”: the root names a sending or release, while its direction and object determine whether it frees or threatens.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away; dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch shows that shalach can name a forceful sending away, fitting the verse’s hard sense of opposition being released toward Judah.
Shiloach: Sent; the name of the pool of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
In John 9:7, the pool’s name is glossed “Sent.” The same word family can point toward a healing encounter, showing that what is sent takes its force from its destination and purpose.
THE PATTERN
A sending takes its force from its direction and purpose: what is sent can expel, free, or restore.
Therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden, to serve the ground from which he was taken.And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.“Let my people go” uses the same שׁלח root as “send against” here. In Exodus, the release frees the people; here, the sending sets rulers against Judah, so the root itself does not decide whether its force is rescue or threat.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us