What Does 2 Samuel 23:15 Mean?
David craved and said, Who will give me drink from the waters of the well of Bethlehem, the one at the gate?
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 David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate!THE KEY
The Hebrew asks for someone to make David drink, so the longing is already shaped as an act of provision.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks in the particular: David (דָּוִד, Dāvid, “beloved”) longs for the water of Bethlehem’s well, by the gate. Bethlehem (בֵּית לֶחֶם, Beit Lechem, “house of bread”) sets thirst beside the name of nourishment. You meet longing here as something with a source and a place.
THE ROOT
יַשְׁקֵנִי
yashqeni
GROWS FROM
שקה
שָׁקָה (shaqah): to give drink; to water.
“give me drink” in this verse is yashqeni. The verb asks for someone to cause David to drink, making the request relational: another gives what thirst needs. The same root describes watering the ground, so the act can sustain both a person and the soil.
ALSO GROWS
hishqah: he gave drink; he watered
הִשְׁקָה
This form shares the root’s ש־ק־ה consonants and names the act of giving water that David longs for.
mashqeh: a drink; a beverage
מַשְׁקֶה
This noun carries the same root consonants into the water itself, the provision sought in the verse.
וַיִּתְאַוֶּה
vayyit'avveh
GROWS FROM
אוה
אָוָה (ʾawah): to desire, crave, or long for.
“craved” in this verse is vayyit'avveh. The Hebrew presents longing as an inward desire that becomes speakable. It lets the want take a precise shape, a particular water from a particular well, and be heard.
ALSO GROWS
ta'avah: desire; craving
תַּאֲוָה
This noun shares the root’s א־ו־ה consonants and shows the desire beneath David’s spoken wish.
hit'avah: to desire; to long for
הִתְאַוָּה
This verb form shares the same root consonants and echoes the inward longing named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Thirst takes form as a request for drink, and provision as giving it.
David craved and said, Who will give me drink from the waters of the well of Bethlehem, the one at the gate?They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys break their thirst.For I hungered, and you gave me food; I thirsted, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in.THE THREAD
But a mist rose from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.The verb שָׁקָה (shaqah, “to give drink; to water”) also describes water reaching the ground here. The same act holds together the earth’s watering and David’s request, widening thirst into a pattern of provision.
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