What Does 2 Samuel 20:12 Mean?
And Amasa wallowed in blood in the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he turned Amasa aside from the highway into the field, and threw a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.
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 Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still.THE KEY
The Hebrew pictures Amasa rolling in blood while the crowd’s movement locks around him.
THE MEANING
When death occupies the shared way, everyone who comes by stops. Amasa is moved from the highway into the field and covered with cloth; the body is cleared from the route, while the blood remains part of the scene.
THE ROOT
מִתְגֹּלֵל
mitgōlēl
GROWS FROM
גלל
g-l-l
to roll or roll away
“Wallowed” carries the motion of rolling about, not only the condition of being bloodied. The root’s other branches name rolling away and the turning wheel, placing a moving body against a crowd held still.
ALSO GROWS
galal: to roll or roll away
גָּלַל
The same root describes the shepherds rolling a stone from a well’s mouth; here it gives Amasa’s body a physical motion in the blood.
galgal: wheel; a thing that rolls or turns
גַּלְגַּל
This branch carries the root’s repeated rolling motion, sharpening the bodily image in “wallowed.”
THE PATTERN
A shared way becomes passable when what blocks it is taken out of the path.
And it shall be said, Heap up, heap up, clear the way, lift up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.A voice calls out in the wilderness, Clear the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a raised road for our God.Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.THE THREAD
Roll your way upon the LORD, and lean your weight on him, and he will do it.The Hebrew verb translated “Commit” means “roll” and comes from the same root as “wallowed.” Here the image shifts: instead of a body rolling in blood, it is the way itself that is rolled onto the LORD.
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