What Does 2 Samuel 15:24 Mean?
And look, Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, lifting the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up, until all the people had finished crossing out of the city.
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 lo Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God: and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city.THE KEY
The ark is carried to the city’s edge and set down while the verse measures the departure by the whole people crossing.
THE MEANING
A departure remains in motion until everyone has passed the boundary. The ark is borne and then set down as Abiathar continues upward until the people’s passage out of the city is complete.
THE ROOT
לַעֲבוֹר
laʿăvōr from ʿāvar
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
To cross, pass through, or go beyond.
“Passing out” carries the sense of crossing through to the other side, not merely leaving a location. The verse marks the passage as complete when all the people have crossed.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: Beyond; the far side
עֵבֶר
This noun makes the boundary in the verse feel like a crossing to what lies beyond the city.
maʿavār: A crossing or passage
מַעֲבָר
The same root names a passage itself, echoing the people’s movement through the city’s boundary.
נֹשְׂאִים
nōśəʾîm from nāśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
The ark’s movement depends on people lifting and carrying it. This root also reaches from carrying weight to raising something up, so the verse holds transport and elevation together.
ALSO GROWS
maśśāʾ: A load or burden
מַשָּׂא
This branch names what is carried, giving the ark-bearing a concrete sense of lifting a weight.
nāśîʾ: A prince or chief; one lifted up
נָשִׂיא
This branch shows the root extending from bearing weight to raising a leader.
צָדוֹק
Ṣādōq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or just; to be in alignment.
Zadok’s name shares the root of alignment. The verse places him beside the ark as the people cross, letting the name’s sense and his position meet.
ALSO GROWS
ṣedeq: Rightness, justice, alignment
צֶדֶק
This is the root’s abstract form, bringing alignment into the meaning carried by Zadok’s name.
ṣaddîq: A just or aligned person
צַדִּיק
This related word expresses the root as a person’s character, as Zadok’s name does.
THE PATTERN
A communal passage is complete only when the whole people have crossed the boundary.
And the children of Israel walked on the dry ground in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them, on their right hand and on their left.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.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
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.The Hebrew root עָבַר (ʿāvar), meaning “cross” or “pass through,” appears in both verses: here the people pass out of the city, and in Joshua they pass over the Jordan. In each, the ark is held at a boundary while the whole people complete their crossing.
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