What Does 2 Samuel 19:27 Mean?
And he has told a tale against your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like a messenger of God. Do what is good in your eyes.
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 he hath slandered thy servant unto my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God: do therefore what is good in thine eyes.THE KEY
The report can reach the king, but its arrival does not make it true; judgment still rests with the king’s eyes.
THE MEANING
You can be spoken against without becoming the accusation spoken against you. The speaker names the king as God’s messenger and entrusts the decision to what is good in his sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A charge becomes true simply because it reaches someone with authority.
THE ROOT
וַיְרַגֵּל
vayragel
GROWS FROM
רגל
Foot; the word family also carries senses of going about, spying out, and slandering.
“told a tale against” in this verse is vayragel. The verb translated “slandered” belongs to a word family that names the foot and one who goes about spying. The accusation has traveled to the king, but the verse still leaves judgment to his eyes.
ALSO GROWS
regel: Foot
רֶגֶל
This noun shares the root and gives its movement a concrete form: the slander is something that goes about.
meraggel: One who scouts or spies out
מְרַגֵּל
This related form describes going about to gather information, illuminating how the verb can carry a hostile report.
THE PATTERN
A charge may circulate or seem persuasive, but sound judgment looks beyond the first report and examines what is true.
He does not walk upon his tongue, does no harm to his neighbor, nor lifts up a taunt against his neighbor.The aligned one at the head of his own contention seems straight, but his neighbor comes and searches him out.Do not judge by what the eye sees, but judge the judgment of alignment.THE THREAD
He does not walk upon his tongue, does no harm to his neighbor, nor lifts up a taunt against his neighbor.The Hebrew root רגל appears in both passages: KJV renders it “slandered” here and “backbiteth” in the psalm. The shared root reveals slander as a report that goes about, while this verse leaves the judgment to the king’s eyes.
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