What Does 2 Samuel 19:40 Mean?
Then the king crossed to Gilgal, and Chimham crossed with him. All the people of Judah brought the king across, and also half the people of Israel.
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 the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him: and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel.THE KEY
The king, his companion, and the people all cross by the same Hebrew root, even where English says the people “conducted” him.
THE MEANING
You are moving toward a new stage with others accompanying you and helping conduct the passage. The gathering can still be incomplete: movement and division occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a meaningful crossing depends on your strength alone is undone here: the king’s passage is conducted by the people with him.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעֲבֹר
wayyaʿavor ʿavar heʿeviru
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ר
ʿ-b-r
Pass across; cross over.
“crossed” in this verse is wayyaʿavor ʿavar heʿeviru. Hebrew repeats this root for the king’s movement, Chimham’s movement with him, and the people’s act of conducting him. The English “conducted” conceals that the people are part of the same crossing.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavar: To pass across or cross over.
עָבַר
This is the root behind the king and Chimham going on.
heʿevir: To cause to pass across; bring across.
הֶעֱבִיר
This causative form describes Judah conducting the king.
maʿavar: A passage or crossing.
מַעֲבָר
The root also gives a name for the threshold the verse’s people move through together.
גִּלְגָּל
Gilgal
GROWS FROM
ג־ל־ל
g-l-l
Roll; roll away.
Gilgal carries an echo of rolling that Joshua 5:9 makes explicit through the words “rolled away.” Here the king’s movement toward Gilgal brings that name’s sense of something being rolled clear into the passage.
ALSO GROWS
galal: To roll or roll away.
גָּלַל
Joshua 5:9 uses this verb when it links Gilgal’s name with what has been rolled away.
megillah: A scroll; a rolled document.
מְגִלָּה
This branch preserves the root’s image of something rolled into a form that can be opened.
THE PATTERN
Crossing language marks movement from one side or state to another, making passage itself a turning point.
And the children of Israel came into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them, on their right hand and on their left.And Elijah took his mantle, and rolled it up tight, and struck the waters, and they split this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever hears and responds to my word, and leans his full weight on him who sent me, has the life of the ages, and does not come under the judgment, but has crossed over from death into life.THE THREAD
And all the people crossed over Jordan. And when the king had crossed over, the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he turned back to his place.The preceding verse records the people and king crossing the Jordan; this verse repeats the crossing root as the king, Chimham, and Judah move toward Gilgal. The English shift to “conducted” hides that the people’s act belongs to the same movement across.
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