What Does 2 Samuel 20:16 Mean?
Then a wise woman called out from the city, Hear and respond, hear and respond. Say, please, to Joab, draw near here, that I may speak with you.
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 cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear; say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee.THE KEY
The wisdom here begins by summoning power into listening distance.
THE MEANING
A wise voice can rise from within a threatened place, and the opening comes when the one with power draws close enough to hear. Listening makes room for words that can alter what happens next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the voice inside a threatened city has nothing to offer, or that power can act wisely without first listening.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, and, in a call that invites response, receive what is heard.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shim'u. English can make “hear” sound passive, but the repeated Hebrew command stands at the start of a chain of response: the listeners are to carry the woman’s words to Joab. Hearing becomes the first movement that makes her speech possible.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This command form shares the root’s movement from receiving a sound toward answering it.
shemuʿah: A report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root can name both the act of hearing and the message received, fitting the passage’s movement from the woman’s call to the words carried to Joab.
קְרַב
qerav
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach; draw near.
“draw near here” in this verse is qerav. The approach is part of the encounter: before the woman can speak with Joab, he must cross the distance. The same root appears in korban, a drawing near, so “come near” carries a sense of arrival into contact as well as physical proximity.
ALSO GROWS
qorban: An offering; something brought near, a drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
It shares the root of Joab’s commanded approach, linking nearness with entry into an encounter.
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
This branch names the closeness that the woman asks Joab to create so they can speak.
אֲדַבְּרָה
adabberah
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; the root family also names a word or matter.
“Speak” in this verse is adabberah. The verb for speaking belongs to the same root family as davar, “word” or “matter.” The woman’s speech is not empty sound here: it is a matter she brings before the commander, once he comes close enough to hear it.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun shares the root and lets “speak” carry the added sense of bringing a matter into the encounter.
dibber: Spoke; addressed.
דִּבֵּר
This verb form shares the root with the woman’s “that I may speak,” making the act of addressing Joab explicit.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom can redirect a dangerous moment when a voice is heard before force carries through.
And there is found in it a poor wise man, and he slips the city free by his wisdom; yet no one remembers that same poor man.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.THE THREAD
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.The Hebrew verb behind “heareth” comes from the same שמע (sh-m-ʿ) root as the woman’s repeated “Hear, hear.” Proverbs names the folly of answering before hearing; here, the woman deliberately opens the space for hearing before the crisis proceeds.
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