What Does 2 Kings 6:22 Mean?
And he answered, You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.
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 he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.THE KEY
The men taken by sword are answered with bread and water, turning victory into a meal and a way home.
THE MEANING
You hold captured enemies, and the verse sets the power to strike beside the act of placing bread and water before them. They eat, drink, and return to their master; the violence stops here without their enmity being erased. The meal carries them out of your hands alive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A captive is not automatically a target for a final blow: this verse puts food and water before the captured men and sends them home.
THE ROOT
לֶחֶם
lechem
GROWS FROM
ל־ח־ם
L-Ḥ-M
The consonants in לֶחֶם name bread; the same consonants also appear in לָחַם, to fight, and מִלְחָמָה, battle.
The consonants of לֶחֶם (lechem, bread) echo לָחַם (lacham, to fight), shifting the scene from sword and bow to a meal. The food answers the conflict without pretending the men were never captives or enemies.
ALSO GROWS
lacham: to fight
לָחַם
Its consonants echo in the bread placed before the armed captives, setting provision beside combat.
milḥamah: battle, warfare
מִלְחָמָה
The battle word shares the consonant frame, making the meal’s contrast with the weapons especially sharp.
שָׁבִיתָ
shavita
GROWS FROM
ש־ב־ה
sh-v-h
To take captive, to carry away as a captive.
“taken captive” in this verse is shavita. The Hebrew makes their status explicit: these men are already captives before the question about striking them. The turn is from holding them by force to feeding them and letting them return to their master.
ALSO GROWS
shevi: captivity
שְׁבִי
This noun names the condition the men are already in when the verse rejects striking them.
shavui: captive
שָׁבוּי
This form names a person held captive, bringing the verse’s question into focus: their helplessness does not require another blow.
THE PATTERN
When an enemy is within reach, the text places concrete provision where retaliation could go.
If the one who hates you hungers, feed him bread; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink.So if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink, for by doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head.But I say to you, love your enemies, speak well over those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who abuse you and pursue you.THE THREAD
If the one who hates you hungers, feed him bread; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink.Proverbs gives the same pair of provisions, bread and water, to an enemy. The shared Hebrew word לֶחֶם (lechem, bread) lets the meal in 2 Kings echo as a recurring answer to hostility.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us