What Does 2 Samuel 1:15 Mean?
And David called to one of the young men, and said, Draw near, and fall upon him. And he struck him, and he died.
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 called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died.THE KEY
The voice that commands the killing remains part of the killing, even when another hand delivers the blow.
THE MEANING
The verse lays out the sequence without a gap: David speaks, orders a young man to approach, and the man strikes until the other dies. Responsibility remains visible from the spoken command through the fatal act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a person bears responsibility only for the blow their own hand delivers; here, the order comes from David and the strike from another man.
THE ROOT
וַיַּכֵּהוּ
vayyakkehu
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
To strike or deal a blow; in context, to strike down.
“struck” in this verse is vayyakkehu. This root names the blow and its lethal consequence in the same line. The man does not die at a distance from the command: the commanded strike ends in his death.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
The noun names the injury produced by the same root, making the violence of the verb concrete.
mukkeh: One who is struck; a stricken person.
מֻכֶּה
The same root names the person by what the blow has done to him.
דָּוִד
david
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; the name carries the nature of one who is beloved.
The name holds belovedness, while the sentence places David’s voice behind a killing. That tension remains in the text: a name carrying love does not make the command harmless.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also a male relative such as an uncle.
דּוֹד
This is the word-family from which the name carries its sense of belovedness.
dodim: Loves or expressions of love.
דּוֹדִים
The plural keeps love in the same word-family as David’s name, sharpening the contrast with the lethal order.
וַיֹּאמֶר
vayomer
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾ-m-r
To say or speak.
“said” in this verse is vayomer. The underlying line repeats this verb of speaking around the instruction. The blow begins as speech: the words direct a man toward another man’s death.
ALSO GROWS
imrah: An utterance or saying.
אִמְרָה
This branch shows speech as something formed and carried; here, the utterance carries a lethal command.
omer: A saying or spoken word.
אֹמֶר
The same root keeps the spoken word present as part of the act, before the hand strikes.
THE PATTERN
Responsibility for violence follows the command and the benefit, even when another hand carries it out.
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.You have judged against the aligned one and struck him down, and he does not set himself against you.Whoever pours out the blood of man, by man his blood shall be poured out, for in the shape of God he made man.THE THREAD
Why have you made light of the word of the LORD, to do evil in his eyes? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and you have taken his wife to be your wife, and you have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.The Hebrew verb translated “killed” here comes from the same strike-root as “smote” in this verse. The connection makes responsibility visible beyond the hand holding the sword: the killing is named as David’s act.
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