What Does 2 Samuel 13:35 Mean?
And Jonadab said to the king, Look, the king's sons come. As your servant said, so it is.
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 Jonadab said unto the king, Behold, the king’s sons come: as thy servant said, so it is.THE KEY
The servant’s “word” is also a “matter” in Hebrew, so the sons’ arrival is where what was said becomes visible.
THE MEANING
A report is weighed against what stands before you: the king’s sons have arrived, and the servant’s word matches the scene. The confirmation is exact but partial: the sons are here, while Amnon’s death remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that all the king’s sons are dead is overturned: the sons arrive, though Amnon is dead.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
To speak or say; its noun family includes word, matter, and thing.
The KJV renders this as “as thy servant said,” while Hebrew phrases it as “according to the word of your servant”: דְּבַר (devar, “word of”). The word-family can name a word, a matter, or a thing, so the sons’ arrival is the matter that makes the servant’s speech visible.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
This noun holds speech and the matter being spoken of within the same word-family.
dibber: Spoke or declared
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root’s consonants, linking the servant’s speaking with the matter now confirmed.
בָּאוּ
ba'u
GROWS FROM
בוא
bo
To come, enter, or arrive.
English “come” can suggest motion toward someone; this root also carries the sense of entering or arriving. The sons are already present, where the servant’s earlier word can be checked against the scene.
ALSO GROWS
ba: Came or arrived
בָּא
This form makes the arrival concrete: the sons have reached the king.
mavo: Entrance or entry
מָבוֹא
This branch carries the root’s sense of coming into a place, sharpening the arrival as presence.
THE PATTERN
A spoken claim becomes legible through what comes to pass.
When the prophet speaks in the nature of the LORD, if the word does not come to be, nor arrive, it is the word the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it in a boiling over. You shall not cower from him.And the LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I keep watch over my word to do it.The second time the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him, Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And he began to weep.THE THREAD
And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I perceive that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.Both verses use דבר (davar, “word, matter”) to hold a spoken message beside what is now present. In this verse, the sons’ arrival confirms the servant’s word; in 1 Kings, the woman recognizes the LORD’s word as truth after her son is restored.
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