What Does 2 Samuel 24:21 Mean?
And Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the striking may be held back from the people."
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 said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the plague is to be restrained from the people, a blow held back, not a danger erased from the story.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a destructive threat and the possibility of restraint together. David seeks an altar as the place where the plague’s reach can be held back from the people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that once a destructive force begins, nothing can interrupt its reach: David’s stated purpose is that the plague be restrained from the people.
THE ROOT
וְתֵעָצֵר
wə-tēʿāṣēr
GROWS FROM
עצר
To restrain, hold back, or shut in.
“held back” in this verse is wə-tēʿāṣēr. English “stayed” can sound like a delay; the Hebrew verb comes from a root meaning to restrain or shut in. A related form describes someone held or confined, so the verse pictures the plague being checked and kept from the people.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṣar: To restrain, hold back, or shut in.
עָצַר
The verb names the act David seeks: the plague’s reach is held back.
ʿāṣūr: Shut up, confined, or restrained.
עָצוּר
This related form shows how the same root can describe something contained and prevented from moving freely.
הַמַּגֵּפָה
ham-maggephah
GROWS FROM
נגף
To strike, smite, or cause to stumble.
The noun for “plague” grows from a root of striking, making the threat a blow rather than an abstraction. Beside עצר, the verse names both the strike and the restraint sought against its reach.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaph: To strike, smite, or cause to stumble.
נָגַף
The verb reveals the striking image carried inside the word translated “plague.”
negef: A blow, defeat, or stumbling.
נֶגֶף
This related noun makes the event concrete as a blow suffered by the people.
THE PATTERN
When a destructive blow threatens a people, someone stands in the breach and the blow is restrained.
And he stood between the dead and the living, and the striking was held back.Then Phinehas stood up and stepped between, and so the striking was held back.THE THREAD
And he stood between the dead and the living, and the striking was held back.The Hebrew verb translated “was stayed” comes from the same root עצר, meaning to restrain or hold back, as David’s request here. Numbers shows the restraint taking shape as someone stands between the dead and the living.
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