What Does 2 Samuel 14:4 Mean?
And the woman of Tekoah came to the king, and fell on her face to the ground, and bowed down, and said, Deliver, O king!
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 when the woman of Tekoah spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.THE KEY
Her body bows to the ground while her plea, הוֹשִׁיעָה (hôšîʿâ, “deliver!”), asks the king to open a way from constriction into spaciousness.
THE MEANING
Need stands before authority in a bodily posture and plain words: she bows to the ground and says, “Help, O king.” The plea carries the force of deliverance, a way opening out of constriction before the one she addresses.
THE ROOT
הוֹשִׁיעָה
hôšîʿâ
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver, rescue; the movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
The plea translated “Help” is הוֹשִׁיעָה (hôšîʿâ, “deliver!”), from יָשַׁע (yasha, “deliver, rescue”). Its word family names both the rescue and the one who brings it, giving this request a clear direction: out of constriction and into spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
yeshaʿ: Deliverance, rescue.
יֵשַׁע
This noun names what the imperative asks for: deliverance itself.
moshiaʿ: Deliverer, rescuer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings deliverance, the role the woman’s plea places before the king.
THE PATTERN
A cry for deliverance brings need directly before the one from whom rescue is sought.
O LORD, I beg you, deliver now. O LORD, I beg you, make now a way through.This bowed one cries out, and the LORD hears him, and brings him out of all his narrow places.When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have compassion on me.THE THREAD
Help me, O LORD my God; deliver me according to your faithful love.The Hebrew for “save me” comes from יָשַׁע (yasha, “deliver, rescue”), the same root as the plea translated “Help” here. Psalm 109 places a general request for help beside a specific appeal for deliverance, opening the force of the woman’s words.
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