What Does 2 Samuel 20:9 Mean?
And Joab said to Amasa, Is there wholeness for you, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.
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 Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.THE KEY
The question about “health” is a question about shalom, wholeness, spoken as Joab takes hold of Amasa and kisses him.
THE MEANING
The word of wholeness reaches you beside a hand that grips and a kiss that can conceal danger. “Brother,” greeting, and touch carry the signs of closeness, while the verse leaves you alert to the gap between those signs and the action beside them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A familiar greeting, a kiss, or the word “brother” does not by itself prove that someone is safe.
THE ROOT
נָשַׁק
nāshaq
GROWS FROM
נ־ש־ק
n-sh-q
To kiss; to touch in a gesture of greeting or affection.
The same Hebrew root names Joab’s kiss here and the “kisses” in Proverbs 27:6. The root names the gesture, but not whether it is sincere: that meaning emerges from what surrounds it.
ALSO GROWS
nāshaq: To kiss.
נָשַׁק
This is the verb used for Joab’s action toward Amasa.
neshiqot: Kisses.
נְשִׁיקוֹת
Proverbs 27:6 uses this plural form for kisses that can conceal an enemy’s deceit.
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
Wholeness, completeness, or being made whole.
“wholeness for you” in this verse is shalom. “Health” carries the deeper sense of wholeness in shalom. Its root also gives words for what is complete and for making good or repaying, so the greeting’s promise of wholeness sits sharply beside the grip and kiss.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the wholeness inside Joab’s question audible.
shillem: To repay or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch shows the root can describe restoring what is owed or missing, adding weight to a greeting that asks after wholeness.
THE PATTERN
Words and gestures of closeness can conceal hostility when their appearance is separated from the truth of the action.
Steady are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.The words of his mouth are smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are opened swords.And at once he came to Jesus and said, Hail, teacher, and kissed him.THE THREAD
Steady are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.The Hebrew word for “kisses” in Proverbs grows from the same root, נ־ש־ק (n-sh-q), as Joab’s kiss. Proverbs makes explicit what this verse lets you see in the gap between a gesture of affection and the action around it.
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