What Does 2 Samuel 10:2 Mean?
Then David said, I will do faithful love to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father did faithful love to me. And David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.
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 David, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father shewed kindness unto me. And David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.THE KEY
The kindness David received from a father who is now gone crosses into the son’s grief through other hands.
THE MEANING
Faithful love continues through a new relationship when the one who first gave it is gone. Here, care moves beyond memory and reaches another person’s grief through the hands of others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that kindness ends with the person who first gave it loses its hold here: care can outlive its giver and reach the next generation.
THE ROOT
חֶסֶד
ḥesed
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
Steadfast, loyal love expressed as concrete care.
“do faithful love” in this verse is ḥesed. The word holds more than a kind feeling: it is loyalty made active. David’s care carries forward what he received, even after its first giver is gone.
ALSO GROWS
ḥasad: To act loyally or kindly.
חָסַד
This verbal form shows kindness as something done; in the verse, it arrives through a deliberate act of care.
ḥasid: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
The same root can describe a person by their loyalty, showing how chesed is a quality that takes shape in relationships.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayyishlaḥ
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
To send forth, release, let go, or extend outward.
The kindness does not remain an inward intention; it is sent outward and carried across distance. The word’s sense of extension makes the servants’ journey part of how care reaches Hanun.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of a pool associated with sent waters.
שִׁלֹחַ
As the waters are named for being sent, David’s concern is also sent toward someone he cannot reach in person.
shulchan: Table; provision extended to others.
שֻׁלְחָן
The table carries the sense of provision extended outward, echoing the way kindness is sent through another’s hands.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
ד־ו־ד
Beloved; affection shared with a close relation.
David’s name carries the nature of the beloved, and here that nature appears as care passed onward. His response lets kindness received in one relationship reach another generation.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved, close relation, or uncle.
דּוֹד
The word joins affection with kinship, resonating with care that moves from a father’s relationship to his son.
dodim: Love or endearments.
דּוֹדִים
This form names affection expressed between people, matching the verse’s love made visible through an act of comfort.
THE PATTERN
Faithful love continues through new relationships when the person who first gave it is gone.
And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, turn back each to her mother's house. May the LORD do faithful love with you, as you have done with the dead and with me.O extend your hands in thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his faithful love reaches to the ages.From afar the LORD appeared to me, saying, I have loved you with a love of the ages. Therefore with faithful love I have drawn you.THE THREAD
And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, turn back each to her mother's house. May the LORD do faithful love with you, as you have done with the dead and with me.The same Hebrew word, chesed, underlies “kindness” here and “deal kindly” in Ruth. In both verses, care continues through grief and reaches living people in a new relationship.
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