What Does 2 Samuel 15:25 Mean?
And the king said to Zadok, Bring back the ark of God into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back, and show me both it and his dwelling.
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 king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation:THE KEY
The Hebrew root שׁוּב (shuv, return) names both sending the ark back and David’s hope of being brought back.
THE MEANING
Your own return can remain uncertain even while what is sacred goes back to its place. One Hebrew root binds those movements, while favor and renewed sight remain in the LORD’s hands. The verse holds hope without turning it into a guarantee.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Losing control of what is sacred means losing every possibility of returning to God.
THE ROOT
הָשֵׁב
hāshēv
GROWS FROM
שוב
To turn back or return; in causative forms, to bring someone or something back.
“Bring back” in this verse is hāshēv. The verse uses this root for both the king’s command to return the ark and his hope that the LORD will bring him back. English separates the two movements; Hebrew joins them in one root, while leaving the outcome of David’s return open.
ALSO GROWS
yāshūv: He returns or will return.
יָשׁוּב
This form visibly carries the root’s consonants and shows the basic movement of return alongside the verse’s causative sense of bringing someone back.
meshūvāh: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can name a turning away, giving its return here the depth of a movement that can restore someone from displacement.
חֵן
ḥēn
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor or act graciously toward someone.
Favor appears in the LORD’s eyes: David’s return rests in a relationship of regard, not in a claim he can make. The ark can return to its place while his own return remains something he hopes to receive.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānan: To show favor; to act graciously.
חָנַן
This verb gives the action behind the favor David hopes to find in the LORD’s eyes.
ḥannūn: Gracious; favor-giving.
חַנּוּן
This adjective describes one who shows favor, keeping the verse’s hope grounded in the LORD’s character.
THE PATTERN
Restoration takes the form of return, and return reaches its fullness when the displaced are received back.
But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she turned back to him, into the ark, for the waters were upon the face of all the earth. Then he stretched out his hand, and took her, and brought her in to him, into the ark.Turn back, Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled in your crookedness.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
He turns back my living soul; he leads me in the tracks of alignment for the sake of his nature.Psalm 23 uses the same root שׁוּב (shuv, return) in “restoreth,” placing that return within נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul). It opens David’s hope beyond being brought back to a city: return can also name the restoration of the reader’s inner life.
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