What Does 2 Samuel 1:13 Mean?
And David said to the young man who told him, From where are you? And he answered, I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.
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 David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.THE KEY
“Stranger” names a way of dwelling among others, so the answer holds a family’s outsider status and Amalekite peoplehood side by side.
THE MEANING
You can dwell among people without that presence dissolving the origin you carry; this answer holds sojourner parentage and Amalekite identity together. The question draws out where a person is from, and the reply gives more than one layer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that residence erases origin dissolves here: the man names both a sojourner parent and Amalekite peoplehood.
THE ROOT
גֵּר
gēr
GROWS FROM
גור
g-w-r
To dwell among others as a sojourner or outsider.
English “stranger” can suggest someone merely unknown, but גֵּר (gēr), “sojourner,” names someone living among a people without native status. “Son of a sojourner” names a family’s relation to place, while “Amalekite” names a people; the answer holds both together.
ALSO GROWS
gûr: To sojourn or dwell among others as an outsider.
גּוּר
The noun for “stranger” grows from this verb, linking the identity to dwelling among others.
megûrîm: Sojournings or places of sojourn.
מְגוּרִים
This branch makes the root’s link to residence visible: the stranger’s identity is connected to where and how the family dwells.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; the beloved one.
The name David carries the sense of belovedness through דּוֹד (dōd), “beloved.” The verse places the beloved questioner beside a speaker who names himself through both sojourner parentage and peoplehood.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved; beloved one.
דּוֹד
This is the word associated with David’s name, bringing the nature of the questioner into the exchange.
dōdî: My beloved.
דּוֹדִי
This form preserves the same beloved root in a personal relation, echoing the name’s relational sense.
THE PATTERN
A person may dwell among others while still carrying the name and status of a sojourner.
I am a stranger, one who has sat down among you. Give me a holding of a grave among you, that I may bury my dead from before my face.But the sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as one who springs up among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.Beloved, I urge you as those dwelling alongside, to hold yourselves away from the fleshly cravings, which march against your living soul.THE THREAD
But the sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as one who springs up among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.The word translated “stranger” in both verses is גֵּר (gēr), “sojourner,” from גור (g-w-r), “to dwell as a sojourner.” Leviticus makes clear that this status can belong to someone dwelling among a people, opening the young man’s answer as both a relation to place and an identity among peoples.
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