What Does 2 Samuel 14:9 Mean?
And the woman of Tekoah said to the king, My lord, O king, let the crookedness be on me, and on my father's house, and let the king and his throne be clean.
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 the woman of Tekoah said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house: and the king and his throne be guiltless.THE KEY
The throne is called clean at the exact moment another house is assigned the guilt.
THE MEANING
This sentence places the iniquity on the woman and her father’s house while naming the king and his throne guiltless. It shows how innocence can be pronounced on one side while guilt is assigned to another; the burden remains visible in the very sentence that transfers it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a clean verdict proves no one bears guilt breaks here: the sentence places guilt and guiltlessness side by side, assigning them to different parties.
THE ROOT
נָקִי
nāqî
GROWS FROM
נקה
Be clean, clear, or free from liability; clear or acquit.
The Hebrew adjective נָקִי describes the king and his throne as clean, while its root also appears in the action of clearing or acquitting. The word holds a declared state together with the act of clearing: the throne is named clear while iniquity is assigned to the woman and her father’s house.
ALSO GROWS
wənaqqēh: And clear; and acquit.
וְנַקֵּה
This verb from the same root names the act underlying the king’s stated condition of being guiltless.
yənaqqeh: He will clear or acquit.
יְנַקֶּה
In Exodus 34:7 this verb follows וְנַקֵּה in a phrase about clearing the guilty, keeping the act of acquittal in view beside this verse’s assignment of guilt.
THE PATTERN
Verdicts assign guilt or cleanness, but naming them does not make the moral account disappear.
And his mother said to him, Let your curse be upon me, my son. Only hear and respond to my voice, and go and bring them to me.Guarding faithful love for thousands, carrying crookedness, rebellion, and falling short, and who by no means leaves the guilty clean, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation.He who aligns the wicked, and he who convicts the aligned one, both are loathed by the LORD.THE THREAD
Guarding faithful love for thousands, carrying crookedness, rebellion, and falling short, and who by no means leaves the guilty clean, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation.The king’s “guiltless” and Exodus’s “clear” share the Hebrew root נקה, which can name both cleanness and the act of clearing. That root makes the verse’s pairing sharp: the king is declared clear as iniquity is placed on the woman and her father’s house.
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