What Does 2 Samuel 15:35 Mean?
Do you not have there with you Zadok and Abiathar the priests? So it will be that whatever you hear from the king's house, you will tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
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 hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king’s house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.THE KEY
Hearing becomes a channel: the message from the king’s house passes through trusted listeners to those who can carry it onward.
THE MEANING
You are inside a chain of listening and telling: what becomes audible in the king’s house is carried to trusted witnesses. Here, hearing opens into transmission; the message does not stop with the one who receives it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that hearing is complete once a message reaches you; here, receiving it opens the next link in the chain.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמַע
tishma
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
To hear, listen, or heed.
“hear” in this verse is tishma. The same root names both hearing and a report that is heard. Since the verse moves from hearing straight to telling, listening here is not a private endpoint; it opens into response.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear, listen; hear and respond when a response is implied.
שְׁמַע
The received message is followed by the explicit response of carrying it to Zadok and Abiathar.
shemuah: A report or tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root can name both the act of hearing and the message that travels through the hearing chain.
תַּגִּיד
tagid
GROWS FROM
נגד
nagad
To declare, make known, or bring something to notice.
“tell” in this verse is tagid. The message is brought into the open by being passed from one person to another. The verse traces disclosure as a route: what is heard within the king’s house is made known to the priests.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: He declared or made known.
הִגִּיד
This verb form shares the root of “tell” and shows the act of carrying information into view.
maggid: One who declares or announces.
מַגִּיד
This branch names the person who carries a message onward, making the relay itself visible.
צָדוֹק
tsadoq
GROWS FROM
צדק
tsadaq
To be right or aligned.
Zadok’s name carries the root of alignment. The message is entrusted to a priest whose name bears that quality, placing the chain of disclosure beside alignment without claiming the message itself is aligned.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness or alignment.
צֶדֶק
This noun carries the root within Zadok’s name and gives the name its quality.
tsaddiq: One who is right or aligned.
צַדִּיק
This related form names a person by the same root quality carried in Zadok’s name.
THE PATTERN
A message becomes protection when a trusted hearer carries it onward.
Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus I have counseled.And the word became known to Mordecai, who told it to Esther the queen, and Esther said it to the king in Mordecai's nature.And when Paul's sister's son heard of their sitting in wait, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.THE THREAD
Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stood by En-rogel, for they could not be seen to come into the city; a maidservant went and told them, and they went and told king David.The two instances of “told” here use the same Hebrew root נגד as “tell” in the current verse. The repeated root reveals the message’s route: it reaches David by passing through trusted hands.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us