What Does 2 Samuel 13:21 Mean?
But when King David heard all these words, he burned exceedingly.
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
But when king David heard of all these things, he was very wroth.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls what David hears דְּבָרִים (devarim), words and matters from the same root as “speak”, so the report itself is already an event entering him.
THE MEANING
What reaches you as a report can kindle anger in you; the verse names that heat plainly. The hearing and the anger stand together, showing how words can become personally consequential before any response is described.
THE ROOT
הַדְּבָרִים
haddevarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word or matter spoken.
The verse calls the report הַדְּבָרִים (haddevarim), “the words” or “the matters.” The root דבר carries both speaking and the word or matter spoken, so English “things” can obscure that David hears an account made of words.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This singular form shows the same root holding together what is spoken and the matter being spoken about.
dibbēr: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
The verb makes explicit the speaking contained in the root of the “things” David hears.
medabbēr: Speaking; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the same consonants and links the heard matter back to the act and source of speech.
וַיִּשְׁמַע
wayyišmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen.
“heard” in this verse is wayyišmaʿ. שָׁמַע means hear or listen, and its noun branches include both hearing and a report. Here, hearing is where the words become personally consequential: David receives the matter, and it burns to him.
ALSO GROWS
shemûʿāh: Report or tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is what is heard; the branch ties David’s hearing to the account that reaches him.
mishmāʿ: Hearing or report.
מִשְׁמָע
This noun shares the root consonants and holds together the act of hearing and what is heard.
THE PATTERN
What enters the ear carries consequences into speech and anger, so hearing matters to the response that follows.
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.THE THREAD
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Both passages use דבר: here it names the words or matters David hears, and in Genesis it names the word that comes to Abram. The shared root holds speech and the matter it carries together; in both verses, what arrives as a word changes what the hearer is facing.
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