What Does 2 Samuel 16:6 Mean?
He threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, while all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
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 he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.THE KEY
David’s name carries the beloved into the scene, yet even the mighty men at his sides do not keep the stones from reaching him.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you in the reality that being beloved does not make a body untouchable: stones reach David and the people with him. Mighty men stand on both sides, yet their presence does not dissolve the danger. Vulnerability and strength remain in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being beloved or surrounded by strength does not make you unreachable by violence.
THE ROOT
דָּוִד
Dāwîḏ
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; dear one.
The name carries the sense of “beloved” into a scene of physical attack. The verse holds affection and exposure together: being beloved does not place David beyond the reach of stones.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved or dear one; also a kinsman or uncle.
דּוֹד
The same consonants can name a beloved person or close kin, placing affection and belonging inside David’s name.
dodim: Loves or expressions of love.
דּוֹדִים
This related word appears for love in the Song of Songs, making the name’s consonants echo affection amid the assault.
וַיְסַקֵּל
wayĕsaqqēl
GROWS FROM
סקל
s-q-l
To stone or pelt with stones.
“cast stones” in this verse is wayĕsaqqēl. The Hebrew verb names the full physical act of pelting with stones. Its word family keeps the thrown stones and the violence they enact joined together.
ALSO GROWS
saqal: To stone or pelt with stones.
סָקַל
This verb form makes the assault a direct action against David and the people with him.
seqilah: Stoning.
סְקִילָה
The related noun names the act itself, joining this attack to other scenes where stones become instruments of bodily violence.
אֲבָנִים
ʾăḇānîm
GROWS FROM
אבן
ʾ-b-n
Stone.
The spelling אבן (even, stone) can also be heard as אָב (av, father) joined with בֵּן (ben, son), holding father and son together in the word. A stone can also occupy a structural place in a building; here the stones fly against a body.
ALSO GROWS
even: A stone.
אֶבֶן
The plural stones in the verse return to this single, concrete object in the hand.
even pinnah: Cornerstone.
אֶבֶן פִּנָּה
The same stone word appears for a stone set at the corner of a structure, bringing the word’s building sense into view beside the stones hurled here.
THE PATTERN
Stones turn hostility into bodily violence, exposing both the target and the public force around them.
And two men, sons of Belial, came in and settled before him, and the men of Belial bore witness against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, Naboth blessed God and the king. Then they brought him out of the city, and stoned him with stones, and he died.Then they lifted stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the middle of them, and so passed by.And they threw him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man called Saul.THE THREAD
And David was greatly pressed into a narrow place, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the living soul of all the people had turned bitter, each man over his sons and over his daughters; but David took firm hold of himself in the LORD his God.Both verses use סקל (saqal, to stone or pelt with stones) with David at the center. Here stones are thrown at him; there his own people speak of stoning him, so the shared root joins an attack from beyond his circle to a threat within it.
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