What Does 2 Samuel 17:5 Mean?
Then Absalom said, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what is in his mouth.
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
Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he saith.THE KEY
The verse makes hearing another voice the hinge where a decision can still change.
THE MEANING
A decision can remain open even after one plan sounds persuasive: Absalom calls Hushai too and asks to hear what is in his mouth. What gets heard can still redirect what happens next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The first advice heard has already settled the decision.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁמְעָה
nishmeʿah
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
Hear, listen, give heed; the root can describe receiving sound and attending to it.
The English “hear” can sound like mere sound reaching the ear; שׁמע (shama, hear, listen, heed) also carries attentive listening. Absalom asks to receive the counsel in Hushai’s mouth, though hearing it does not guarantee he will heed it.
ALSO GROWS
shama: To hear or listen attentively, and in some contexts to heed.
שָׁמַע
This is the same root behind Absalom’s request to hear Hushai’s counsel; listening here becomes part of the decision.
shemuʿah: A report or message that has been heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch shows how hearing can become received news; Absalom is asking for another message to enter the deliberation.
THE PATTERN
A decision’s direction can change while another voice is still admitted into counsel.
Without counsel, plans are broken, but in a multitude of counselors they stand.And king Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who had stood before Solomon his father while he still lived, and said, How do you counsel me to return a word to this people?And the sent ones and elders came together to perceive about this word.THE THREAD
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Proverbs 18:13 uses the same root שׁמע (shama, hear, listen, heed): it names answering before hearing as folly. Absalom brings another voice into the decision, but the next choice still depends on whether he heeds what he hears.
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