What Does 2 Samuel 22:13 Mean?
From the glow before him, coals of fire blaze.
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
Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.THE KEY
The fire is not added after the light: the brightness before God is already where coals burn.
THE MEANING
In God’s nearness, brightness is not empty illumination: coals burn within the radiance before him. Seeing and burning meet in one image, so what comes into view before God is already aflame.
THE ROOT
בָּעֲרוּ
baʿărû
GROWS FROM
בער
b-ʿ-r
to burn, consume, or be aflame
“blaze” in this verse is baʿărû. The Hebrew names the coals as burning; this root family also includes causing something to burn. The line holds the fire in motion: the radiance before him is where the flame is active.
ALSO GROWS
boʿēr: burning, ablaze
בֹּעֵר
This form keeps attention on fire as an active state, like the coals in the verse.
hibʿîr: to kindle, cause to burn
הִבְעִיר
This causative form echoes the verse’s image of coals being set alight.
נֶגְדּוֹ
negdô
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
to stand in front or be conspicuous; in another stem, to make known
The word translated “before” carries a sense of what stands out in front; this root also yields words for declaring and for a leader set in front. The coals’ position is part of their disclosure: the brightness makes them visible before him.
ALSO GROWS
neged: in front of, opposite
נֶגֶד
This is the word-family sense that places the burning coals before him.
higgîd: to tell, declare
הִגִּיד
The root’s sense of making something known echoes the way brightness brings the fire into view.
nāgîd: leader, prince
נָגִיד
The word names one who stands at the front, extending the root’s sense of frontness.
THE PATTERN
God’s appearing becomes visible as fire that carries both radiance and consuming force.
And Mount Sinai smoked all over, because the LORD came down upon it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount trembled greatly.A fire goes before him and blazes all around those who press against him.For our God is a fire that devours.THE THREAD
From the gleam before him his thick clouds cross over, hailstones and coals of fire.This companion verse shares the Hebrew wording for “brightness before him” and “coals of fire,” while placing clouds and hailstones around the image. The shared words reveal the coals as part of the radiance’s storm image.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us