What Does 2 Kings 21:13 Mean?
And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring cord of Samaria, and the weighted line of the house of Ahab. And I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it, and turning it over on its face.
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 I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.THE KEY
The dish is wiped and flipped: Jerusalem’s judgment leaves no clean side or hidden reserve.
THE MEANING
Jerusalem stands under the measure of Samaria and the plummet of Ahab’s house, then is wiped like a dish and turned face down. The image leaves no hidden side: the surface is cleared, and the vessel is inverted. The verse speaks now of a trusted identity being measured by the pattern it embodies; the name itself does not shield it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that Jerusalem’s sacred name makes its present order untouchable: the verse places Jerusalem under the same measure named by Samaria and Ahab.
THE ROOT
מָחָה
māḥâ
GROWS FROM
מחה
m-ḥ-h
Wipe away, erase, blot out.
“wipe” in this verse is māḥâ. The root מחה names both wiping and blotting out, so an ordinary household action can carry the force of total erasure. Here the dish is wiped and turned over, leaving no side outside the image of judgment.
ALSO GROWS
məḥēh: Blot out.
מְחֵה
The same root is applied to transgressions, showing how wiping can mean erasing a record.
ūmāḥāh: Wipe away tears.
וּמָחָה
The same root can remove tears; its meaning depends on what is being wiped away.
מִשְׁקֹלֶת
mishqōleth
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
Weigh.
“weighted line” in this verse is mishqōleth. The plummet is bound to the language of weighing: it tests a structure by a standard. The verse sets that measure beside a line, making the judgment an assessment of the whole city’s order.
ALSO GROWS
shāqal: Weigh.
שָׁקַל
The weighing tests what a kingdom amounts to, echoing the plummet’s assessing function.
sheqel: A unit of weight.
שֶׁקֶל
The related noun makes the root’s weight-and-measure connection concrete.
וְהָפַךְ
wəhāphakh
GROWS FROM
הפך
h-p-kh
Turn, overturn, transform.
“over on its face” in this verse is wəhāphakh. The dish is not only wiped; it is turned onto its face. The root can describe overturning a place or changing one thing into another, so the image carries both removal and reversal.
ALSO GROWS
wayyahăphōkh: Overturn.
וַיַּהֲפֹךְ
The same root describes a place being overturned, extending the dish image toward a whole order’s collapse.
nehpəkhū: Were turned into something else.
נֶהְפְּכוּ
The root also marks transformation, deepening the force of the dish being turned over.
THE PATTERN
A plumb line exposes the order a place embodies, so judgment reaches the structure rather than only its visible faults.
I will lay judgment to the measuring line, and alignment to the weighted line. Hail shall sweep away the shelter of lies, and waters shall sweep over the hiding place.And the LORD said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A plumb line. Then the Lord said, Look, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again cross over them any more.A reed like a rod was given to me, and the messenger stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who bow down in it.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. Show me favor, O God, according to your faithful love; according to the abundance of your compassion, wipe away my rebellion.Psalm 51:1 uses מְחֵה (məḥēh; blot out), from the same root מחה (m-ḥ-h) as Jerusalem’s being wiped. The image shifts from a city emptied in judgment to a speaker asking for transgression to be erased, revealing the root’s reach from public devastation to personal cleansing.
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