What Does 2 Samuel 24:20 Mean?
And Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, and Araunah went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
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 Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.THE KEY
Araunah’s recognition moves from seeing the king to a bodily answer: he steps out and lowers his face to the ground.
THE MEANING
As the king comes into view, Araunah’s perception becomes visible in his movement: he goes out and bows face-first toward the ground. The encounter takes shape in his posture, not only in what he sees.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that recognition is only inward gives way here: Araunah’s body makes his response visible.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ
vayishtachu
GROWS FROM
שחה
shachah
to bow down, bend low, or prostrate oneself
“bowed down” in this verse is vayishtachu. The same Hebrew root appears in KJV passages rendered both “bow” and “worship,” holding bodily posture and reverence together. Here, Araunah’s face toward the ground gives that posture a visible shape.
ALSO GROWS
vayishtachu: Abraham bows low when he meets the visitors.
וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ
The same root presents bowing as a bodily response to an encounter.
vayishtachu: Joshua falls face-down and bows before the captain of the LORD’s host.
וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ
The KJV’s “did worship” carries the same root whose physical posture is explicit in Araunah’s face-to-ground bow.
וַיַּרְא
vayyar
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra'ah
to see, look at, or perceive
“saw” in this verse is vayyar. This root links seeing with forms meaning “seer” and “appearance.” In this sentence, seeing is the hinge between the king’s approach and Araunah’s movement out.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: A person who sees or perceives.
רֹאֶה
The form names the one who performs the act at the center of Araunah’s response.
mar'eh: What appears or is seen.
מַרְאֶה
The shared root joins the perceiver to what comes into view: Araunah sees the king, then acts.
THE PATTERN
The presence of authority draws an embodied answer: bodies bow, kneel, or lower themselves.
And he lifted his eyes and saw, and look, three men stood beside him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent opening, and bowed down to the earth.Enter, let us bow down and kneel before the face of the LORD who makes us.That at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things in heaven, and things on the earth, and things under the earth.THE THREAD
And he said, No, but as commander of the LORD's host I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down, and said to him, What does my lord speak to his servant?Joshua 5:14 uses שחה (shachah, bow down), the same Hebrew root as Araunah’s bow. Both verses place the face toward the earth, making reverence a posture the body carries.
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