What Does 2 Samuel 16:7 Mean?
And Shimei said thus as he cursed, Come out, come out, you man of blood, and you man of worthlessness.
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 thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial:THE KEY
The curse is a way of making a person “light”: it strips a whole life down to the accuser’s labels.
THE MEANING
When accusation reaches you, it can compress a whole person into a charge: violent, worthless. The doubled “Come out” makes the attack public, while the verse marks those names as the speaker’s curse, not neutral description.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A label spoken with certainty is not the same as a true account of the person; the verse identifies these words as cursing.
THE ROOT
בְּקַלְלוֹ
bəqallô
GROWS FROM
קלל
קלל (q-l-l, qālal) carries the sense of being light or treating someone as insignificant; in this form, it means to curse.
“cursed” in this verse is bəqallô. The Hebrew word for cursing also belongs to a family that carries the sense of making light of someone. Shimei’s curse reduces David to the accusations that follow, while the verse keeps that reduction within Shimei’s speech.
ALSO GROWS
qālal: To be light or to treat as insignificant.
קָלַל
This branch shares the root קלל and reveals the devaluing force inside the curse.
qəlālāh: Curse or malediction.
קְלָלָה
This noun shares the same root and names the spoken act that the verse attributes to Shimei.
צֵא
tsēʾ
GROWS FROM
יצא
יצא (y-ts-ʾ, yāṣāʾ) means to go out or emerge.
“Come out” in this verse is tsēʾ. The command is repeated, pressing David to emerge into the accuser’s view. The root’s movement outward gives the words a force of exposure as well as expulsion.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: To go out or come forth.
יָצָא
This verb shares the root יצא and makes the outward movement in the command explicit.
yetsiʾah: An exit or going out.
יְצִיאָה
This noun shares the root’s consonants and shows the same movement as a passage outward.
THE PATTERN
Cursing turns speech into an attempt to reduce a person to the speaker’s accusation.
And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.As the bird in its wandering, as the swallow in its flight, so a curse that weighs nothing does not alight.With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made according to the likeness of God.THE THREAD
And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.The same Hebrew root קלל (q-l-l, “curse; treat as insignificant”) appears in both verses. In each, a curse turns speech into a public attack on the person before the speaker.
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