What Does 2 Samuel 14:12 Mean?
Then the woman said, Let your handmaid, I pray you, speak one word to my lord the king. And he said, Speak.
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 the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats one root for “speak” and “word”: she asks to speak a word, and the king answers with that same speaking word.
THE MEANING
A voice with less power asks for room before revealing its plea, and the king grants it. The exchange holds open the possibility of being heard before the answer is known.
THE ROOT
דַּבֵּר
dabbēr
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; the related noun means a word or matter.
The woman asks, “speak a word,” using the verb and noun from the same root, and the king’s “Say on” repeats the verb. Hebrew ties her request for speech to the word she wants to utter, while English makes the king’s reply sound like a separate formula.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: Speak, utter
דִּבֵּר
This verb appears in her request and again in the king’s permission to continue.
dābār: Word, matter
דָּבָר
The “one word” she asks to speak is the noun from this same root.
THE PATTERN
Words gain a hearing when space is made for the speaker before the answer is given.
Then the king said to her, What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your seeking? Even to half the governance it shall be given you.At that very hour I sent to you; and you have done well in coming alongside. Now, then, we are all here before God, to hear all that has been commanded you by the Lord.THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.The shared root ד־ב־ר links the requested “one word” here with the LORD’s word in the Psalm. The same seed holds speaking and the word spoken together, giving this small exchange a place in a wider pattern of words that carry consequence.
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