What Does 2 Samuel 21:15 Mean?
Again the Philistines were at war with Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines, and David grew faint.
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
Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.THE KEY
Repeated conflict can wear down even the beloved; the verse lets David’s exhaustion stand without calling it defeat.
THE MEANING
You can enter a real struggle and still feel your strength give way. Even David, the beloved, grows weary as the fighting continues. The verse makes bodily limits compatible with courage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that real strength means you should never become exhausted.
THE ROOT
וַיָּעַף
wayyāʿaph
GROWS FROM
יעף
To grow weary or become exhausted.
“grew faint” in this verse is wayyāʿaph. The word names weariness as a real condition of the body, not a judgment about David’s resolve. The same root describes even the young growing faint, so strength does not make anyone inexhaustible.
ALSO GROWS
yāʿēph: To grow weary or become faint.
יָעֵף
This form carries the same root meaning as David’s exhaustion: strength gives way under strain.
yiʿăphū: They grow faint.
יִעֲפוּ
Isaiah 40:30 uses this form even of youths, showing that youth and strength do not prevent weariness.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; loved one.
David’s name carries belovedness, while this verse shows the beloved becoming physically spent. Belovedness does not erase the body’s limits.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved or kinsman.
דּוֹד
This word shares the root of David’s name and makes its sense of belovedness audible.
dōdîm: Loves or endearments.
דּוֹדִים
This related form appears in the language of love, extending the name’s root sense of belovedness.
THE PATTERN
Struggle can exhaust bodily strength, even in those expected to endure.
But Moses' hands were heavy. And they took a stone and set it under him, and he sat upon it. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on this side and the other on that side, and his hands were steady until the sun went down.Even youths faint and tire, and young men utterly stumble.For we would not have you unaware, brothers, of the pressure that came to us in Asia, that we were weighed down beyond measure, beyond strength, so that we were without a way through, even to live.THE THREAD
Even youths faint and tire, and young men utterly stumble.The word translated “faint” shares its Hebrew root with the word describing David’s exhaustion. Isaiah uses it even of youths, opening David’s weariness as a human limit rather than a unique defeat.
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