What Does 2 Samuel 19:18 Mean?
And a ferry boat went across to carry the king's household over, and to do what was good in his eyes. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he crossed Jordan.
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 there went over a ferry boat to carry over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was come over Jordan;THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats one crossing-root through the ferry, the carrying, and the king’s own passage, with Shimei’s fall happening inside that same crossing.
THE MEANING
You see a household being carried across while the king also crosses the Jordan. Shimei falls before him in the midst of that passage, so crossing and encounter occupy the same moment. The verse holds a threshold open: people pass through it, and one person comes into the king’s presence there.
THE ROOT
וְעָבְרָה הָעֳבָרָה לְהַעֲבִיר בְּעָבְרוֹ
wəʿāvrāh hāʿovārāh ləhaʿăvîr
GROWS FROM
עבר
to cross, pass over, or go beyond
“went across” in this verse is wəʿāvrāh hāʿovārāh ləhaʿăvîr. English gives separate phrases, “went over,” “ferry boat,” “carry over,” and “come over”, but their Hebrew forms gather under עבר, “cross or pass over.” The root names the crossing, its means, the act of carrying others across, and the king’s own passage; Shimei’s fall occurs within that repeated movement.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to pass or cross over
עָבַר
This verb describes the king’s own crossing of the Jordan.
heʿevir: to cause to pass over; to carry across
הֶעֱבִיר
This causative form describes carrying the king’s household across.
ʿovārāh: ferry or means of crossing
עֳבָרָה
The ferry itself bears a form of the crossing-root, joining the vessel to the passage it enables.
THE PATTERN
A river or sea crossing forms a threshold through which people pass toward an encounter or arrival.
He rose that night and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford Jabbok.And the priests who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood steady on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing over Jordan.And when they had crossed over, they came onto the land of Gennesaret.THE THREAD
He rose that night and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford Jabbok.Genesis describes Jacob passing the Jabbok ford with עבר, the same Hebrew root repeated through this verse’s ferry, carrying, and crossing forms. In both passages, the crossing is bound to a moment of encounter: Jacob approaches Esau, while Shimei falls before the king as David crosses Jordan.
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