What Does 2 Kings 6:7 Mean?
So he said, Lift it up for yourself. And he stretched out his hand and took it.
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
Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.THE KEY
The return becomes real when the hand reaches out and receives what has risen.
THE MEANING
What comes back into reach can be taken up, held, and carried into ordinary life. The verse holds release and receiving together: the hand extends, then takes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that recovery is only something to watch from a distance: what returns can come within reach and be received.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayyishlaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
The root shalach means send, send forth, release, or let go.
“stretched out his hand” in this verse is vayyishlaḥ. The word carries the sense of sending forth and releasing. What was beyond reach is met by an outward-reaching hand, and the same movement ends in taking hold.
ALSO GROWS
shilleaḥ: Send away; release.
שִׁלֵּחַ
This form makes the release within the root explicit, echoing the movement of the hand outward.
Shiloach: Sent-forth waters; the name of Shiloah.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the image of waters sent onward, joining the root’s movement to restoration.
shulḥan: Table.
שֻׁלְחָן
A table extends provision outward, so what is set forth can be received.
וַיִּקָּחֶהוּ
wayyiqqaḥehu
GROWS FROM
לקח
The root laqaḥ means take, receive, or acquire.
“took” in this verse is wayyiqqaḥehu. The verse’s action does not stop at the iron’s return; the man takes it into his hand. The related word leqaḥ can mean teaching or instruction, something received and taken in.
ALSO GROWS
laqaḥ: Take or receive.
לָקַח
This is the verb family of the verse’s act of taking the returned object.
leqaḥ: Teaching, instruction; what is received.
לֶקַח
Its sense of receiving illuminates the difference between seeing a return and taking it in.
הָרֵם
harēm
GROWS FROM
רום
The root rum means rise or be high; in this form, raise up.
“up” in this verse is harēm. The command names an upward movement, then brings it within reach: what has risen can be raised and taken. The root’s language of height becomes practical in the hand’s next action.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High, elevated.
רָם
It shares the root’s sense of height, describing the position from which the object is brought into reach.
marom: Height; a high place.
מָרוֹם
This branch keeps the upward image present as the verse moves from rising to taking hold.
THE PATTERN
Restoration becomes embodied when what is raised comes within reach and is received.
You give to them, and they gather; you open your hand, and they are filled with good.And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles grew firm.THE THREAD
And the LORD spoke to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.The word rendered “put out” is וַיִּשְׁלַח (vayyishlaḥ), from שלח; the same root appears in “Let my people go.” Here the hand is sent forth toward what returns, while Exodus names release directly, the root joins reaching out with letting go.
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