What Does 2 Kings 4:31 Mean?
And Gehazi passed on before their faces, and laid the staff upon the face of the child. But there was no voice, no hearing. So he went back to meet him, and told him, The child has not awakened.
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 Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked.THE KEY
The silence is total in three distinct ways: no sound, no attentive response, and no waking.
THE MEANING
You are shown an intervention reaching the child, yet eliciting nothing: no voice, no heedful response, no waking. The outcome remains absent in the report, even with the staff placed upon the child’s face.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A commanded act or object guarantees the awakening it is meant to bring.
THE ROOT
הֵקִיץ
hēqîṣ
GROWS FROM
קיץ
q-y-ts
to wake, awaken
“awakened” in this verse is hēqîṣ. English “awaked” can sound like a status label; the Hebrew verb names the event of waking itself. Daniel uses the same root for sleepers in the dust who awake, so this verse reports the absence of that event.
ALSO GROWS
yāqîṣû: They awaken from sleep.
יָקִיצוּ
Daniel 12:2 uses this form for sleepers in the dust, making “not awaked” here the explicit absence of waking.
bə-hāqîṣ: At waking; when awake.
בְּהָקִיץ
Psalm 17:15 uses the same root for waking, showing the word names an event that can be present or absent.
קָשֶׁב
qāšeb
GROWS FROM
קשב
q-sh-b
to attend, heed, listen closely
Here “hearing” is paired with “voice,” but the Hebrew word points to attentive heeding, not only sound entering an ear. The verse therefore reports both a missing sound and a missing response.
ALSO GROWS
haqshîvû: Listen attentively; heed.
הַקְשִׁיבוּ
In Proverbs 4:1, this form asks the hearer to give focused attention, showing the active response contained in the word.
haqshîvî: Listen closely; attend.
הַקְשִׁיבִי
Micah 1:2 addresses the earth with this form, again treating hearing as attentive reception.
THE PATTERN
Returning life becomes visible through a response, revival, movement, or opened eyes.
Then he returned, and walked back and forth in the house, and went up, and bent himself over him. And the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.And the LORD heard and responded to the voice of Elijah, and the living soul of the child returned into him, and he lived.And he grasped the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cumi, little girl, I say to you, arise." And at once the little girl rose and walked, for she was twelve years old. And they were beside themselves beyond measure.THE THREAD
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake, some to the life of the ages, and some to exposure and contempt for the ages.Both verses use קיץ (q-y-ts, to wake or awaken): here the child has not awakened; there, sleepers in the dust awake. The same root spans absent waking and waking from the dust.
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