What Does 2 Kings 19:6 Mean?
And Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says the LORD, Do not fear because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.
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 Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.THE KEY
The threat is heard as words, but the verse names those words as an assault on God rather than as the highest authority.
THE MEANING
A threat can reach your ears without becoming the measure of reality; the verse names the words as reviling the LORD, whose voice holds greater authority. What you hear is real, but it does not have the final say.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a threat becomes ultimate simply because you have heard it.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
speak; word; matter or thing
The plural devarim means words, while davar can also mean a matter or thing; Hebrew keeps utterance and the matter at hand under one root. The threat is something heard, yet its words carry the weight of a claim without becoming the highest authority in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: spoke
דִּבֵּר
The verb for speaking shares the root of the words the king has heard.
davar: word; matter or thing
דָּבָר
This branch shows how the verse’s spoken threat can also be named as a matter before the LORD.
גִּדְּפוּ
giddefu
GROWS FROM
גדף
g-d-p
revile; reproach; insult
“reviled” in this verse is giddefu. The root carries the sense of reviling or reproach beneath “blasphemed.” The verse names the words as an assault directed at the LORD, without granting the threat the status of final truth.
ALSO GROWS
gidduph: reviling; reproach
גִּדּוּף
This noun makes the insulting force of the king’s servants’ words visible.
megaddef: one who reviles
מְגַדֵּף
This form names the speaker by the act of reviling described in the verse.
תִּירָא
tira
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
fear; dread; revere
“Do not fear because of” in this verse is tira. The same root spans fear and reverence, a range English distributes across separate words. Here it names fear in the face of human threats, and the command leaves that fear without the final say.
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: fear; reverence
יִרְאָה
This noun shares the root and shows its range from dread to reverence.
nora: fearsome; awe-inspiring
נוֹרָא
This form carries the same root into what inspires fear or awe.
THE PATTERN
Threatening human words do not become the final authority over the one who hears them.
In God I praise his word; in God I lean my weight. I do not fear what flesh can do to me.But even if you suffer for the sake of alignment, flourishing are you. Do not fear their fear, and do not be stirred.THE THREAD
In God I praise his word; in God I lean my weight. I do not fear what flesh can do to me.Psalm 56:4 uses the same roots for “word” and “fear” that appear here. It places what flesh can do beside trust in God’s word, sharpening the distinction between a threat you hear and the authority that speaks.
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