What Does 2 Kings 5:14 Mean?
Then he went down and immersed himself seven times in Jordan, according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh returned like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
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
Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.THE KEY
He goes down into Yarden, whose name echoes the Hebrew for descending, and his flesh comes back.
THE MEANING
The verse presents a body not fixed by damage: flesh returns like the flesh of a little child, and the person is clean. The movement downward into water gives way to an unmistakable return in the body.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that once bodily wholeness is damaged, it can never return.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּרֶד
wayyēred Yarden
GROWS FROM
ירד
yarad
to descend, to go down
“went down; Jordan” in this verse is wayyēred Yarden. The Hebrew repeats the same root for “he went down” and for Yarden, the Jordan. The descent is present both in the action and in the place where the flesh comes back.
ALSO GROWS
yarad: to descend, to go down
יָרַד
This is the verb translated “went down” in the verse.
Yarden: Jordan, a name associated with descending
יַרְדֵּן
The river’s name echoes the same root as the action taking place in it.
yeridah: descent
יְרִידָה
This noun carries the same downward movement in a form that names the movement itself.
וַיָּשָׁב
wayyāshov
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
to return, to turn back
“returned” in this verse is wayyāshov. The Hebrew verb puts restoration in the grammar of return: his flesh comes back. The verse describes recovery as the return of what seemed lost, not the arrival of something foreign.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: to return, to turn back
שׁוּב
This root gives “came again” its direct sense of returning.
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun carries the same movement of turning back toward a prior state.
וַיִּטְבֹּל
wayyitbol
GROWS FROM
טבל
taval
to dip, to immerse
“immersed himself” in this verse is wayyitbol. The verb keeps the act bodily and repeated: he immerses himself seven times. Cleanness follows as a changed condition of the body.
ALSO GROWS
taval: to dip, to immerse
טָבַל
This verb names the action repeated in the Jordan.
tevilah: immersion
טְבִילָה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of going into water.
THE PATTERN
Restoration is pictured as return: what has been diminished comes back toward wholeness.
His flesh grows moister than a child's, and he returns to the days of his youth.He turns back my living soul; he leads me in the tracks of alignment for the sake of his nature.THE THREAD
His flesh grows moister than a child's, and he returns to the days of his youth.Job’s יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he returns”) comes from שׁוּב (shuv, “return”), the same root behind “came again” here. Both verses pair return with childlike flesh, making the body itself evidence of restoration.
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