What Does 2 Samuel 21:14 Mean?
And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son they buried in the land of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the grave of Kish his father, and they did all that the king commanded. And after that God was pleaded with for the land.
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 the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.THE KEY
The land’s entreaty comes after burial and completion: care for the dead belongs to the land’s repair.
THE MEANING
The dead are returned to their family tomb, the king’s command is carried out in full, and God receives the plea concerning the land. The sequence ties care for the dead to the land’s restoration, so burial is part of what brings the land’s crisis to its turning point.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the dead are only a private family matter, unrelated to the condition of the land.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּעָתֵר
wayyēʿāṯēr
GROWS FROM
עתר
ʿatar
To supplicate or pray; in this form, to be entreated or receive supplication.
“was pleaded with” in this verse is wayyēʿāṯēr. The Hebrew word presents God as receiving an entreaty made for the land. Its placement after the burial and the completed command makes the land’s appeal part of the same sequence of repair.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṯar: To supplicate or pray.
עָתַר
This verb gives the entreaty its root sense of petitioning.
heʿtîr: To make supplication; to pray earnestly.
הֶעְתִּיר
This related form shows the same root describing the act of bringing a petition.
וַיִּקְבְּרוּ
wayyiqberu
GROWS FROM
קבר
qabar
To bury or inter.
“buried” in this verse is wayyiqberu. The Hebrew root names both the act of burial and the grave itself, joining the act to the place where the dead rest. Here burial is immediately followed by God receiving the entreaty for the land.
ALSO GROWS
qever: A grave or tomb.
קֶבֶר
The verse names the family tomb as the place that completes the burial.
qevurah: Burial or interment.
קְבוּרָה
This noun names the act carried out before the land’s entreaty is received.
עַצְמוֹת
ʿaṣmōṯ
GROWS FROM
עצם
ʿetsem
Bone; also substance or strength.
The root links bones with substance and strength, so the word carries more than the sense of remains. Here those bones are given a named place within the family tomb, grounding the passage’s act of care in the body itself.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeṣem: Bone; substance or self.
עֶצֶם
This form shows the root’s range from bodily bone to what constitutes a thing.
ʿāṣūm: Mighty or strong.
עָצוּם
This related form connects the bodily structure named as bones with strength.
THE PATTERN
The healing of a shared world follows concrete acts that answer harm, together with supplication.
His corpse does not lodge on the tree through the night, but you surely bury him on that day, for the hanged one is a curse of God; so that your ground, which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, is not defiled.If my people, upon whom my name is called, bend themselves low, and pray, and seek my face, and turn back from their harmful ways, then I will hear from the heavens, and I will release their falling short, and heal their land.Speak your stumbles into the open to one another, and pray over one another, that you may be made whole. The asking of an aligned one, working within, is very strong.THE THREAD
His corpse does not lodge on the tree through the night, but you surely bury him on that day, for the hanged one is a curse of God; so that your ground, which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, is not defiled.Both verses use the root קבר (qabar), “to bury.” Deuteronomy directly joins burial to the land’s condition; here, burial is followed by God receiving the entreaty for the land.
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