What Does 2 Samuel 20:7 Mean?
And there went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men. And they went out of Jerusalem 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
And there went out after him Joab’s men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men: and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.THE KEY
The same root that sends Joab’s force after Sheba can also describe goodness pursuing you, so the word names motion before it names motive.
THE MEANING
You see an organized force leave Jerusalem and pursue a single man; the movement is concrete, armed, and unequal. The verse’s double motion, going out, then chasing, shows a place associated with wholeness becoming the launch point for pursuit, and it leaves the violence in view.
THE ROOT
לִרְדֹּף
lirdof
GROWS FROM
רדף
radaph
to chase or pursue
“pursue” in this verse is lirdof. The root names the motion of pursuit, while its branches can make someone either the pursuer or the pursued. The same verb elsewhere describes goodness and faithful love following a person, so the chase itself does not tell you what is driving it.
ALSO GROWS
redifah: pursuit, chasing
רְדִיפָה
It names the act behind the force moving after Sheba.
nirdaf: one who is pursued or persecuted
נִרְדָּף
It shows the other side of the same root: the person on the receiving end of the chase.
וַיֵּצְאוּ
vayetse'u
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
to go out, emerge, or depart
“went out” in this verse is vayetse'u. The Hebrew repeats this verb: the force goes out, then goes out from Jerusalem toward pursuit. Its root can also name an origin or point of departure, making the city the launch point of the chase.
ALSO GROWS
yotse: one who goes out or emerges
יֹצֵא
It makes the departure an active movement rather than a static location.
motsa: origin, source, or point of departure
מוֹצָא
It echoes Jerusalem’s role as the place from which the pursuit begins.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
shalem
to be whole or complete
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name carries the sense of wholeness. Here, the forces leave that named center and move into a pursuit whose violence remains explicit.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, completeness
שָׁלוֹם
It gives the city’s name its echo of an integrated state.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It clarifies the root’s sense of wholeness carried in the city’s name.
THE PATTERN
Pursuit reveals the direction a force serves: it can chase people toward bondage, follow a person as goodness, or seek what makes for wholeness.
And the LORD strengthened the heart of the Great House, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with a lifted hand.Surely goodness and faithful love pursue me all the days of my life, and I settle in the house of the LORD for the length of days.So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.THE THREAD
Surely goodness and faithful love pursue me all the days of my life, and I settle in the house of the LORD for the length of days.The Hebrew root translated “pursue” here is also translated “follow” in the psalm. In Samuel, armed men pursue a target; in the psalm, goodness and faithful love pursue the speaker, the root holds the motion together while what follows changes.
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