What Does 2 Kings 7:2 Mean?
Then a third officer, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in the heavens, could this thing be? And the man of God said, Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but you will not eat of 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
Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.THE KEY
The “thing” he calls impossible is the very “word” already spoken over Samaria.
THE MEANING
You can be someone others rely on and still mistake present limits for the limits of what can happen. Seeing promised provision become real does not, by itself, mean sharing in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If I cannot see how provision could arrive, then no provision is possible.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, affair, or thing.
“thing” in this verse is davar. In verse 1, the LORD’s promise is called a davar; here, the official asks whether this davar can be. The same Hebrew word holds “word” and “matter” together, placing the spoken promise and its possible fulfillment on the same linguistic ground.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter, affair, or thing.
דָּבָר
The noun used for the LORD’s “word” in verse 1 is repeated as “this thing” in verse 2.
dibber: Spoke; to speak, a verb form from דבר.
דִּבֶּר
The speaking form shares the root of the matter being questioned: the official challenges whether what is spoken can come to pass.
נִשְׁעָן
nish’an
GROWS FROM
שׁען
To lean on, rest upon, or rely on.
The verse says the king leaned on this official, making reliance part of his very description. That image sits beside his disbelief: someone cast as another’s support cannot imagine support arriving through the LORD’s promise.
ALSO GROWS
mish’en: Support or stay.
מִשְׁעֵן
This branch names what someone leans on, echoing the official’s place as a support for the king.
yishsha’en: He will lean on or rely on.
יִשָּׁעֵן
The same root carries the act of relying, which sharpens the contrast between the king’s reliance on the official and the official’s dismissal of the promise.
THE PATTERN
Dismissal cannot cancel promised provision, though the dismissive hearer may remain outside its enjoyment.
And they spoke against God, and said, Can God lay out a table in the wilderness?And we see that they could not enter because of not leaning their full weight.There will be weeping and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the governance of God, but you yourselves are thrown outside.THE THREAD
Then Elisha said, Hear and respond to the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD, About this time tomorrow a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.“Word of the LORD” is davar, the same word rendered “thing” in the official’s question one verse later. The promise gives a time and concrete measures of food; the next verse asks whether that very davar can be.
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