What Does 2 Samuel 19:19 Mean?
And he said to the king, Do not count crookedness to me, my lord, and do not remember what your servant twisted on the day my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should set his heart to it.
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 said unto the king, Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart.THE KEY
The plea asks for more than a passing thought: that a wrong not be carried forward as the king’s lasting account of the person who did it.
THE MEANING
The speaker names the crookedness and asks that it not be entered as a continuing charge or kept at the center of the king’s heart. The verse holds both truths together now: the wrong is real, and the account need not be the last word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a wrong, once named, must remain the final account of the person who did it.
THE ROOT
יַחְשֹׁב
yaḥshov
GROWS FROM
חשב
to think, devise, reckon, or account
“count” in this verse is yaḥshov. The Hebrew verb behind “impute” comes from חשב, a root that spans thinking, devising, and reckoning. The plea asks that this crookedness not become the king’s lasting account of the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
ḥeshbon: calculation, account
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch makes the accounting sense explicit: what is reckoned can be kept as a charge.
maḥashavah: thought, plan
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This branch shows the same root at work in thought and intention, joining what is considered with what is counted.
תִּזְכֹּר
tizkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
to remember, recall, or bring to mind
“remember” in this verse is tizkor. The verse pairs reckoning with remembering: a wrong can remain present both as a charge and as something repeatedly brought to mind. The request is not to deny the act, but not to keep returning to it as the defining account.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: remembrance, memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial carries something forward in memory, showing how remembering can preserve an event beyond its moment.
mazkir: one who recalls or brings to remembrance
מַזְכִּיר
This causative form makes remembering active: something is brought back into view, as the speaker asks the king not to do.
THE PATTERN
A wrong can be named without being carried forward as the defining charge.
Flourishing is a person to whom the LORD does not count crookedness, and in whose breath there is no deceit.Flourishing is the one whose falling short the LORD will never count.THE THREAD
As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, to make it as it is this day, to keep a great people alive.The Hebrew root חשב appears in both passages: here it is translated “impute,” while there it is translated “thought” and “meant.” The shared root brings accounting, intention, and judgment together without pretending the wrong was unreal.
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