What Does 2 Samuel 20:13 Mean?
When he was turned aside from the highway, all the people went after Joab, to pursue Sheba, son of Bichri.
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
When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “highway” also names the siege mound built for the pursuit, so clearing the road already carries the violence forward.
THE MEANING
A crowd regains momentum when the body blocking its way is moved, but its purpose stays the same. Everyone continues after Joab to pursue Sheba; the cleared road carries that pursuit onward. What becomes passable does not become harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that removing an obstruction is automatically peaceful: the cleared road makes the pursuit possible again.
THE ROOT
מְסִלָּה
mesillah
GROWS FROM
סלל
To raise or heap up, forming a raised way.
The highway word grows from סָלַל (salal), “to raise or heap up.” In the same chapter, סֹלְלָה (solelah), “siege mound,” grows from that root too: the raised road and the raised structure used in the siege share one seed.
ALSO GROWS
mesillah: Highway, raised road.
מְסִלָּה
The word for the route the body is removed from carries the sense of a way raised up.
solelah: Siege mound or bank.
סֹלְלָה
The same root names the mound raised against the city as the pursuit advances into siege.
וַיֻּסַר
wayyussar
GROWS FROM
סור
To turn aside, depart, or remove.
“turned aside” in this verse is wayyussar. The verb describes the body being taken aside, while the root also names turning aside or departing. English makes removal sound like a simple clearing; the Hebrew holds the movement away from the path inside it.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This is the root’s basic motion away from a place or course.
hēsîr: Remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form shows the act of making something depart from its place.
לִרְדֹּף
lirdof
GROWS FROM
רדף
To pursue or chase.
“pursue” in this verse is lirdof. The root names the force of chasing; the object gives that force its direction. In Psalm 34:14, the same root carries pursuit toward שָׁלוֹם (shalom), “wholeness.”
ALSO GROWS
rodef: Pursuer.
רֹדֵף
The pursuer is the one carrying the chase forward.
redifah: Pursuit or persecution.
רְדִיפָה
This noun makes the ongoing force of the chase visible.
THE PATTERN
Removing an obstruction can restore movement while leaving its original force and destination intact.
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.Every valley is lifted, and every mountain and hill is brought low; the crooked is made straight, and the rough places become a plain.THE THREAD
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.The Hebrew verb רָדַף (radaph), “pursue,” appears in both verses. Here the people chase Sheba; Psalm 34:14 directs that same force toward שָׁלוֹם (shalom), “wholeness.”
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