What Does 2 Samuel 15:8 Mean?
For your servant vowed a vow while I settled at Geshur in Syria, saying, If the LORD truly brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD.
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
For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, saying, If the LORD shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats שׁוּב (shuv, return) to distinguish returning from being brought back: restoration is attributed to the LORD, while service is only the speaker’s promise.
THE MEANING
A return is pictured as something the LORD gives, and service is the speaker’s stated response. The surrounding action puts that vow under strain: sacred language can accompany a concealed bid for power, so the words alone do not show what the speaker serves.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A vow that names the LORD proves the speaker’s devotion. Here, the words of service sit within a concealed bid for power, so sacred phrasing alone cannot certify the aim beneath them.
THE ROOT
יְשִׁיבֵנִי
yeshivēni
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn back; return.
“brings me back” in this verse is yeshivēni. The verse pairs יָשׁוֹב (yashov, return) with יְשִׁיבֵנִי (yeshivēni, bring me back), forms from the same root. The first speaks of return; the second makes the LORD the one who brings the speaker back, so the vow rests on a return he does not claim to accomplish himself.
ALSO GROWS
yashov: He returns.
יָשׁוֹב
This form appears in the verse’s repeated root and sets return beside the act of being brought back.
heshiv: Bring back; restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form makes the root’s return something one person can bring about for another.
עַבְדְּךָ
avdekha
GROWS FROM
עבד
avad
Work; serve; be in service.
The verse uses the עבד (avad) family for both “thy servant” and “serve the LORD.” English makes these sound like separate ideas, while Hebrew ties the speaker’s claimed identity to the service he promises; the shared root sharpens the gap between what he says and what his actions reveal.
ALSO GROWS
avad: Serve; work.
עָבַד
This verb is the root behind the promise to serve the LORD.
avodah: Service; work.
עֲבֹדָה
This noun carries the same root into the work or service being promised.
יְרוּשָׁלַם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
shalem
Wholeness; completeness.
The name Jerusalem carries the consonants of שׁלם (shalem, wholeness), the family heard in שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness). The destination of the return is therefore also framed by the language of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch lets the name Jerusalem echo with wholeness.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes the root’s sense of completeness explicit.
hishlim: Complete; bring to completion.
הִשְׁלִים
This verb shows the root’s movement toward making something whole.
THE PATTERN
A release or return from danger opens into a declared life of service to the LORD.
And the LORD spoke to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.For you draw my living soul out of death, my eyes out of tears, my feet out of being thrust down. I walk before the LORD in the lands of the living.That he would give us, having been brought out from the hand of our enemies, to serve him without fear,THE THREAD
And behold, I am with you, and I will guard you in every place you go, and I will bring you back into this land; for I will not leave you until I have done the word I have spoken to you.The promise “bring thee again” uses the same שׁוּב (shuv, return) family as the return named here. In Genesis, being brought back is God’s pledge; in this verse, that same divine agency becomes the hinge for a vow of service whose truth the surrounding action puts in question.
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