What Does 2 Samuel 13:33 Mean?
Now therefore, let not my lord the king set this word to his heart, that all the king's sons are dead. For Amnon only is dead.
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
Now therefore let not my lord the king take the thing to his heart, to think that all the king’s sons are dead: for Amnon only is dead.THE KEY
A report can be placed in the heart without being true: this verse separates the real loss from the greater fear.
THE MEANING
A devastating report can seize attention and still misstate the truth. The verse holds the real loss, Amnon is dead, apart from the larger claim that all the king’s sons are dead. It speaks whenever fear turns one confirmed loss into an imagined total loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that because one devastating loss is real, everything you love is already lost.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing.
“set this word to his heart” in this verse is davar. The word translated “thing” is davar, which can name both what is spoken and the matter itself. Here, a spoken report is poised to become the matter held in the king’s heart, though the correction shows the report exceeds the truth.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke, declared
דִּבֵּר
The king hears a claim as speech; its being spoken does not make it true.
davar: Word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The same word can name an utterance and the matter at issue, joining what is said to what is believed to have happened.
יָשֵׂם
yasem
GROWS FROM
שים
To put, set, or place.
“set this word to his heart” in this verse is yasem. The Hebrew says, in effect, “let him not put this matter into his heart.” It distinguishes hearing a report from installing it as the inward account of reality.
ALSO GROWS
sim: Put, place, set
שִׂים
This is the concrete action beneath the phrase: a report can be placed within the heart.
sim lev: Set the heart; attend to
שִׂים לֵב
The idiom keeps the image of placement, showing how attention gives a matter inward weight.
לִבּוֹ
libbo
GROWS FROM
לבב
The inward self: heart and mind.
The heart is the inward center of thought as well as feeling. The question is not only what hurts, but which account of events has taken hold within.
ALSO GROWS
lev: Heart, inner self
לֵב
The king is cautioned against letting the report become his inward understanding.
levav: Heart, inner mind
לֵבָב
This fuller form also points to the mind, reinforcing that “take to heart” concerns what is accepted as true.
THE PATTERN
A terrifying report does not become the whole truth merely because it reaches the heart first.
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.You shall not lift up a false report; do not set your hand with the wicked to be a witness of violence.But Jesus, overhearing the word that was spoken, at once said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only lean your full weight."THE THREAD
He does not fear evil report; his heart is set firm, leaning his weight on the LORD.Both verses use lev, “heart,” beside the arrival of troubling news. Here the king is cautioned against placing an untrue report in his heart; the psalm shows a heart remaining firm as bad tidings arrive.
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