What Does 2 Samuel 14:5 Mean?

And the king said to her, What ails you? And she said, Surely I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

2 Samuel 14:5 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead.

THE KEY

The word for “widow” may echo silence, yet her answer makes the loss speak plainly.

THE MEANING

Widowhood is the stated answer to the king’s question, and “my husband is dead” names the loss behind it. The verse keeps the claim concrete: a living woman describes her condition through the death of the man bound to her.

THE ROOT

אַלְמָנָה

ʾalmānāh

GROWS FROM

א־ל־ם

ʾ-l-m

To be silent or mute; the proposed link between this root and “widow” is uncertain.

⁨אַלְמָנָה⁩ (ʾalmānāh, widow) is traditionally connected with ⁨אָלַם⁩ (ʾālam, be silent or mute), though the etymology is uncertain. That proposed echo gives “widow” an undertone of silence, even as this verse lets the woman voice her loss directly.

ALSO GROWS

ʾillēm: Unable to speak.

אִלֵּם

This related form supplies the suggestive silence echo in “widow,” without making the derivation certain.

tēʾalamnāh: May they be silenced.

תֵּאָלַמְנָה

This verb form shows the root’s connection with silence, adding a possible undertone to the name she gives herself.

THE PATTERN

Widowhood is named as a vulnerable condition that calls for protection and care.

You shall not press on any widow or fatherless child.

Exodus 22:22 · SDVIt names the widow as someone whose exposed condition must not be exploited.

A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his set-apart dwelling.

Psalm 68:5 · SDVIt names widows among those for whom divine care and judgment are declared.

Clean and unstained service before God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widowed in their being pressed, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27 · SDVIt connects the widow’s affliction with the presence and care that define pure devotion.

THE THREAD

You shall not press on any widow or fatherless child.

Exodus 22:22 · SDV

Exodus uses the same Hebrew word ⁨אַלְמָנָה⁩ (ʾalmānāh, widow), naming the condition in this verse as one to be protected from affliction. The repeated word turns her answer into more than a label: it names a recognized vulnerability.

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