What Does 2 Samuel 21:13 Mean?
And he lifted up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered the bones of those who were hung out.
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 he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “bones” can also mean “self,” so the gathering is of more than remains: it gathers what violence left behind.
THE MEANING
A violent death does not make a body disposable: the bones are still gathered. Saul and Jonathan remain named, and even the hanged are brought into that gathering; the verse holds each body within human care now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a person’s body becomes worthless once a violent death has taken their life.
THE ROOT
עַצְמוֹת
ʿatsmot
GROWS FROM
עצם
To be strong or mighty; עֶצֶם names a bone and can also mean self or substance.
English makes “bones” sound like what is left after the person is gone. Hebrew עֶצֶם can also name the self or substance itself, while עָצוּם (ʿatsum) means mighty. The word lets the bones stand close to the person whose body violence has reduced to remains.
ALSO GROWS
etsem: Bone; also self or substance.
עֶצֶם
The same word can point to both the body’s hard remains and the person’s very self.
ʿatsum: Mighty, strong, or numerous.
עָצוּם
This branch preserves the root’s sense of strength within the word for bone.
שָׁאוּל
Sha’ul
GROWS FROM
שאל
To ask or request; Saul’s name is commonly understood as “asked for.”
Saul’s name carries the sense of one asked for. Here, the bones of the once-named king are brought up, while the same gathering also includes those the verse identifies only as the hanged.
ALSO GROWS
sha’al: To ask or request.
שָׁאַל
This verb gives Saul’s name its sense of “asked for.”
she’elah: A request or question.
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun carries the same root of asking within Saul’s name.
יְהוֹנָתָן
Yehonatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place; Jonathan’s name means “YHWH has given.”
“Jonathan, his son” in this verse is Yehonatan. Jonathan’s name holds the meaning “YHWH has given.” The verse names him as Saul’s son as his bones are brought up, keeping the relationship present even when only the remains are described.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This verb supplies the root meaning in Jonathan’s name.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This word from the same root carries the sense of something given.
THE PATTERN
The dead remain within human care: their bodies are carried, gathered, or prepared for rest.
And Joseph made the children of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely look upon you, and you shall bring up my bones from here."So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold a rattling, and the bones drew near, bone to its bone.Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the custom of the Jews to bury.THE THREAD
So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold a rattling, and the bones drew near, bone to its bone.The same Hebrew noun, עֶצֶם (etsem, bone), names what is gathered here and what comes together there. In 2 Samuel, gathering follows a killing; in Ezekiel, bone joining bone becomes the first visible movement from scattered remains toward a body again.
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