What Does 2 Samuel 23:17 Mean?
And he said, Far be it from me, O LORD, that I should do this. Is this not the blood of the men who went with their living souls? Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.
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 he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.THE KEY
Water becomes blood when the lives of those who carried it have entered the gift.
THE MEANING
This verse makes visible how another person’s risk can inhabit what reaches your hand. The water carries the lives of those who brought it, so it cannot be received as an ordinary drink without losing sight of the men inside the gift.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a gift can be separated from the people who risked themselves to bring it.
THE ROOT
בְּנַפְשׁוֹתָם
b'nafshotam
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self: a person as life, self, or throat.
“living souls” in this verse is b'nafshotam. The verse says the men go בְּנַפְשׁוֹתָם (b’nafshotam, with their lives). Nephesh can name the living self and the throat or appetite, holding together the lives put at risk and the mouth that would drink. In Exodus 23:12, a verb from the same root describes being refreshed, so the drink that could refresh David is tied to the selves risked to fetch it.
ALSO GROWS
nafshotam: Their lives or selves.
נַפְשׁוֹתָם
This is the form used for the men’s lives in the verse: their living selves are bound to the water’s journey.
nephesh: Living self, person, throat, or appetite.
נֶפֶשׁ
The word reaches from the whole person to the throat that drinks, joining the men who risked their lives to the drink David refuses.
veyinnafesh: And may be refreshed; from the root נָפַשׁ (naphash), to be refreshed.
וְיִנָּפֵשׁ
Exodus 23:12 uses this form for rest and refreshment, echoing the drink’s power to refresh while recalling the lives risked to bring it.
THE PATTERN
When a life is placed at risk, what is given carries the giver’s life with it.
But flesh in its living soul, its blood, you shall not eat.No one has greater love than this, that someone lay down his living soul for his friends.By this we perceive love, for he laid down his living soul for us, and we are bound to lay down our living souls for the brothers.THE THREAD
But flesh in its living soul, its blood, you shall not eat.Genesis uses the same Hebrew word, נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, living self or life), for “life” and joins that life to blood. Here the word appears in “their lives,” and David calls the water their blood: the men themselves are present in the water he refuses.
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