What Does 2 Samuel 23:10 Mean?
He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand grew faint, and his hand clung to the sword. The LORD made a great deliverance that day, and the people returned after him only to strip.
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
He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.THE KEY
The word translated “clave” is the same Hebrew verb used for covenantal attachment, so the exhausted hand is bound to its sword with the force of a bond.
THE MEANING
At the edge of exhaustion, your hand can remain joined to what it has been wielding; the grip itself does not mean the struggle is over. The LORD brings about a great victory, while those who follow return only to plunder. Violence, deliverance, bodily cost, and the followers’ limited motive remain visible together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a victory called the LORD’s must make the violence disappear or render everyone around it noble: the sword still binds the exhausted hand, and the followers return only to plunder.
THE ROOT
וַתִּדְבַּק
vatidbaq
GROWS FROM
דבק
d-b-q
Cling, adhere, hold fast; become joined.
“clung” in this verse is vatidbaq. English “clave” can sound like a momentary grip, but דבק describes holding fast or being joined. The same verb names a bond between spouses and attachment to God; here, that force of attachment binds a weary hand to its sword, holding intimacy and violence in the same root.
ALSO GROWS
vedavaq: He shall cleave, cling, or be joined.
וְדָבַק
In Genesis 2:24, this verb describes the bond between a man and his wife, showing that דבק carries the force of deep joining, not simply grasping.
tidbaq: You shall cling or hold fast.
תִּדְבָּק
Deuteronomy 10:20 uses this form for holding fast to the LORD, showing the root’s range from covenantal attachment to the hand’s bond with its weapon.
תְּשׁוּעָה
teshuah
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver, rescue, bring into safety.
“made a great deliverance” in this verse is teshuah. This root places deliverance beneath the word rendered “victory”: beyond the defeat of an enemy, it carries the sense of being brought out to safety. Here, that deliverance comes while the sword remains in the exhausted hand, holding the outcome and its violent means together.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver, rescue, bring into safety.
יָשַׁע
The verb at the root of תְּשׁוּעָה frames victory as being brought out, not merely as an enemy’s defeat.
yesha: Deliverance, rescue.
יֵשַׁע
This related noun makes the rescue within the verse’s victory language audible: the LORD brings deliverance in the midst of the fight.
THE PATTERN
Victory can be attributed to God even when human conflict and effort remain visible.
And all this assembly shall perceive that the LORD does not deliver with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands.For they did not take hold of the land by their sword, and their own arm did not deliver them; but your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you took pleasure in them.But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.The verb translated “cleave” in Genesis is דבק, the same root as the hand clinging to the sword here. The same word can name intimate joining or an attachment sustained through violence, so the root reveals more than a tired grip.
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