What Does 2 Samuel 21:22 Mean?
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
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
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.THE KEY
The verse makes power plural: the four fall through David’s hand and the hands of his servants.
THE MEANING
The verse holds origin and outcome together: four are born to the giant in Gath, and all four fall by the hands of David and his servants. Its repeated phrase gives the servants a distinct share in the action beside David.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only a lone hero can bring down a giant threat is undone by the verse’s second hand: the servants share in the fall.
THE ROOT
עֲבָדָיו
avadav
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve.
“his servants” in this verse is avadav. The verse names the servants through the root of serving and working, then gives their hand a place beside David’s. They are not merely an unnamed extension of David; their part in the fall is stated.
ALSO GROWS
eved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This is the singular form behind “his servants,” keeping their role in the action explicit.
avodah: Work, labor, service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch shows the active work carried by the servants whose hands are named in the verse.
יֻלְּדוּ
yullĕdû
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear, beget, or bring forth.
“born” in this verse is yullĕdû. The birth word ties the four to a line of descent, not just to the giant’s size. Its branches include child and generations, placing their inherited origin beside their fall.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or beget.
יָלַד
This is the root verb behind “were born,” naming their origin as an act of generation.
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
This branch shows the same seed naming the one brought forth.
toledot: Generations or family line.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This branch extends the birth-root into lineage, clarifying the generational sense of the verse.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דּוֹד
dod
Beloved.
David’s name carries the nature “beloved.” Here the beloved one’s hand is named beside the hands of those who serve with him.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved.
דּוֹד
This is the name-nature carried in David’s name.
dodi: My beloved.
דּוֹדִי
This related form makes the root’s sense of beloved relationship audible.
THE PATTERN
A decisive work can be carried by distinct members acting together, with no single hand standing for the whole.
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.But they took their stand in the midst of that portion, and snatched it away, and struck down the Philistines. And the LORD delivered them through a great deliverance.The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.THE THREAD
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.Genesis uses the same ילד (yalad, “bear or beget”) root for Adam’s begetting of Seth. That shared root makes the birth-line in this verse ring clearly before its repeated hands name how the four fall.
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