What Does 2 Kings 9:25 Mean?
Then Jehu said to Bidkar his third officer, Lift him, and throw him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for I remember when you and I rode after Ahab his father, and the LORD lifted this burden upon him.
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 said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him;THE KEY
The LORD’s “burden” and Jehu’s command to “take up” share one Hebrew root: the word spoken against Ahab is now carried toward Naboth’s field.
THE MEANING
The judgment spoken over Ahab remains present as Jehu recognizes it in the body being carried to Naboth’s field. The verse binds a word, a place, and an unfolding consequence together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a word loses its force because time has passed: Jehu remembers it as its consequence reaches the field.
THE ROOT
מַשָּׂא
massa
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
to lift, carry, or bear
“Lift” in this verse is massa. The noun “burden” and the verb “laid” grow from the same root of carrying. The verse echoes that seed again in “Take up”: what is borne as a spoken burden becomes something physically carried toward the place named in it.
ALSO GROWS
take up: Lift or carry; an imperative form of נשׂא.
שָׂא
Jehu’s command uses the same root as “burden,” linking the body’s carrying with the burden laid upon Ahab.
forgiving: Bearing; in the phrase נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן, bearing crookedness, an idiom rendered “forgiving iniquity.”
נֹשֵׂא
The same root can name crookedness being borne away; here it names a burden borne against Ahab.
THE PATTERN
A word spoken with force can remain present until its appointed consequence appears.
And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the LORD, Have you killed, and also taken hold? And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the LORD, In the place where dogs lapped the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lap your blood, even yours.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.And he began to say to them, Today this writing has been filled in your ears.THE THREAD
Guarding faithful love for thousands, carrying crookedness, rebellion, and falling short, and who by no means leaves the guilty clean, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation.The Hebrew word rendered “forgiving” here is נֹשֵׂא (nōśēʾ), from the same נשׂא root as the “burden” laid on Ahab. The root can picture crookedness being borne away, while this verse uses its burden sense for what is borne against him.
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