What Does 2 Samuel 18:29 Mean?
And the king said, Is the young man Absalom whole? And Ahimaaz said, When Joab sent the king's servant, and me your servant, I saw a great roaring, but I did not know what it was.
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 the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king’s servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was.THE KEY
Absalom’s name contains shalom, wholeness, yet the reply to the king’s question offers only tumult.
THE MEANING
A question about someone’s wholeness can remain unanswered even when a report arrives. What is visible, the tumult, is not yet knowledge of the person at its center, and the messenger’s stated limit leaves the king’s question open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a vivid account of turmoil is the same as knowing whether the person at its center is safe.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
The king asks, “Is there shalom for the young man Absalom?” Absalom (אַבְשָׁלוֹם, Avshalom) joins av (אָב, av, father) with shalom (שָׁלוֹם, shalom, wholeness), so the word in the question is also held in his name. “Safe” carries the urgency of the question; shalom opens it toward the young man’s whole condition.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
It makes the king’s question reach beyond immediate danger to whether the young man is whole.
shillem: Repaid, made good, or made restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch links wholeness with something brought back into completion.
שָׁלַח
shalach
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, release, or let go.
The king’s question reaches him through servants who are sent to report. Sending brings information back, but it does not make the messenger know what he has not seen: Ahimaaz reports the upheaval and says he does not know what it means.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send, send forth, or release.
שָׁלַח
This is the action behind the servants’ journey with their report.
shilluach: A sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It shows the root’s reach from dispatching someone outward to releasing them away.
הָמוֹן
hamon
GROWS FROM
המה
h-m-h
To murmur, roar, or make a great noise.
“roaring” in this verse is hamon. The word for “tumult” carries the sense of a roar or crowd-noise. Ahimaaz sees upheaval, but that sound does not identify its cause or disclose Absalom’s condition.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: To roar, murmur, or make a noise.
הָמָה
It gives the tumult its sound: what can be heard or seen without being understood.
hamon: Noise, tumult, or a multitude.
הָמוֹן
It names the disturbance Ahimaaz reports, which leaves the king’s question unanswered.
THE PATTERN
A question about well-being reaches past the surrounding disturbance to the whole condition of the person.
And he said to him, Go, I pray you, see whether there is wholeness with your brothers and wholeness with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.Run now, I pray you, to meet her, and say to her, Is there wholeness with you, with your husband, with the child? And she answered, There is wholeness.THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, I pray you, see whether there is wholeness with your brothers and wholeness with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.This is the same shalom-rooted inquiry: someone is sent to see whether others are well and bring back word. Here the king asks about Absalom, but the report stops at the visible tumult and leaves the young man’s condition undisclosed.
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