What Does 2 Samuel 15:18 Mean?
And all his servants crossed over beside him, and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, crossed over before the 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 all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.THE KEY
The repeated verb for passing is a crossing: the king is surrounded by people who carry the transition with him.
THE MEANING
When your position shifts, loyalty is visible in who stays in motion with you. The verse places servants beside the king and the Gittites before him, so support is both nearness and movement through a threshold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the picture of authority as fixed and untouchable: the king is in motion, and the company’s nearness is what the verse makes visible.
THE ROOT
עֹבְרִים
ʿovrīm
GROWS FROM
עבר
Cross over, pass through, go beyond.
“crossed over” in this verse is ʿovrīm. The repeated עבר gives “passed on” the deeper shape of crossing through: the servants move at the king’s side, and the Gittites move before him. Its branches hold both the passage and the far side, so this procession is a crossing underway.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: Beyond, across, or the other side.
עֵבֶר
The far side belongs to the same word family as the crossing, making the destination part of the movement.
maʿavār: A passage, crossing, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
This branch reveals the procession as a passage through change, not merely a crowd changing position.
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
To reign or rule.
“king” in this verse is melekh. The company moves in relation to the melek: some pass beside him, others before him. The root carries the idea of rule, while the verse shows the ruler himself in motion, with authority surrounded by those who accompany him.
ALSO GROWS
mālak: To reign or be king.
מָלַךְ
The verb makes the king’s title an active relation to rule, even as he moves through the scene.
malkūt: Kingdom, kingship, or reign.
מַלְכוּת
This branch connects the king to the wider order gathered around him.
הַגִּתִּי
hagGittī
GROWS FROM
גַּת
Winepress; the name-sense associated with Gath.
“Gittites, from Gath” in this verse is hagGittī. The place-name Gath carries the image of a winepress, and the verse names the people by where they come from. Their origin is part of the company’s identity, yet they share the king’s passage.
ALSO GROWS
gittī: A person from Gath.
גִּתִּי
This is the people-name used for the men whose movement places them before the king.
gattōt: Winepresses.
גַּתּוֹת
The place-name’s associated image of pressing adds a layer of nature to the origin named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A crossing becomes a shared passage when people move through it together.
And the priests who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood steady on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing over Jordan.When you cross through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon you.Now, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all of them passed through the sea.THE THREAD
When you cross through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon you.Both verses use עבר (ʿāvar), the verb of crossing: here people pass beside and before the king, while Isaiah speaks of passing through waters with presence alongside. The shared root opens the procession as an image of being accompanied through a passage.
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