What Does 2 Kings 20:12 Mean?
At that time Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent scrolls and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
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
At that time Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.THE KEY
Sickness travels as news, and the gift that arrives carries a distant power into the recovering king’s world.
THE MEANING
A report of sickness travels beyond the sickroom, and distant attention reaches you in letters and a gift. What arrives begins an exchange between your vulnerable life and a wider world.
THE ROOT
שָׁלַח
shalach
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, release, or let go.
The same root can describe sending something toward you and releasing something away from a grip. Here, the letters and gift are sent across a distance, making the arrival itself a point of contact.
ALSO GROWS
shillēaḥ: Release, send away.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This branch holds release inside the same root as sending: what is sent forth is also let go from the sender’s hand.
Shiloach: Sent; the name of the pool of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the root’s sense of what is sent forth, linking this word to the movement of something that reaches another place.
חִזְקִיָּהוּ
Ḥizqiyyāhû
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, grow firm, or strengthen.
Hezekiah’s name joins the root for strength with Yah: YHWH strengthens. The verse holds that name beside the report of his sickness, placing strength and vulnerability in the same life.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong, grow firm, prevail.
חָזַק
The name’s root carries strength as a condition that can take hold, even in a life touched by illness.
ḥizzēq: Strengthen, make firm.
חִזֵּק
This form makes strength something imparted, echoing the meaning compressed into Hezekiah’s name.
שָׁמַע
shamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen; take in what is heard.
“had heard” in this verse is shamaʿ. The same root underlies שְׁמוּעָה (shemuʿah, report or tidings), holding both hearing and the news heard together. Here the news of sickness does not stay at a distance: it is followed by letters and a gift sent toward Hezekiah.
ALSO GROWS
shemuʿah: Report, tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
The verse’s news of sickness belongs to the same root as the act of hearing it.
shamaʿ: Hear, listen.
שָׁמַע
This is the verb in the verse: news enters through hearing, then becomes the occasion for a message to cross the distance.
THE PATTERN
A report of sickness sets a response in motion across distance.
After these words, it came to pass that someone told Joseph, Behold, your father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, look, the one you love is weak.And when he heard about Jesus, he sent to him the elders of the Jews, asking him that he would come and bring his servant through.THE THREAD
And in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who were sent to him to seek out the sign that was done in the land, God let go of him, to try him, that he might perceive all that was in his heart.The same root, שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release), marks the Babylonian arrival, and this verse names the ambassadors’ purpose: to inquire about the wonder done in the land. The gift-bearing message opens an exchange in which a distant power comes near and what is within Hezekiah becomes visible.
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