What Does 2 Samuel 16:1 Mean?
And when David had gone a little past the head of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a pair of saddled donkeys, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and a hundred of summer fruit, and a skin of wine.
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 when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.THE KEY
The word for the donkeys being “saddled” shares a Hebrew root with binding up wounds, joining readiness for the road with care for what hurts.
THE MEANING
You can be just past a rise and still have the road ahead uncertain; this verse holds both truths at once. Nourishment reaches you while danger remains unresolved, in forms the body can receive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You do not have to be safe before you can receive help; here, provision meets you while the danger is still present.
THE ROOT
חֲבֻשִׁים
ḥăḇušîm
GROWS FROM
חבש
ḥ-b-š
To bind, wrap, or prepare by binding.
The Hebrew word for the animals being saddled comes from a root also used for binding up wounds. One root holds preparation for a journey and care for an injury together, a connection the English word “saddled” leaves hidden.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāḇaš: To saddle or bind an animal for travel.
חָבַשׁ
This is the root in the verse’s description of the prepared donkeys.
ḥubbāšû: They were bound up or bandaged.
חֻבָּשׁוּ
Isaiah uses this form for wounds that have not been cared for, showing the same root’s connection to tending injury.
THE PATTERN
Provision can meet a person in the middle of danger, before the surrounding circumstances are resolved.
You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank from the brook.Give us today our bread for the coming day.THE THREAD
From the sole of the foot to the head there is no unbroken place in it, but wounds, welts, and fresh blows. They have not been closed, nor bound up, nor softened with oil.The Hebrew word translated “saddled” here and “bound up” in Isaiah share the root חבש (ḥ-b-š). The root joins binding an animal for its journey with binding a wound for care.
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