What Does 2 Samuel 24:25 Mean?
And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and offerings of wholeness. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the striking was held back from Israel.
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 built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.THE KEY
The “peace offerings” are shelamim, from the same root as shalom, wholeness, so the plague’s stopping is set beside the language of restoration.
THE MEANING
The verse holds harm in view without making it the final condition: the plague is stayed from the land after the altar and offerings appear. Its peace offerings are shelamim, from the root of shalom, wholeness, so relief is voiced beside completeness.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete; to make whole or bring something to completion.
“offerings of wholeness” in this verse is shelamim. The offering name shelamim shares the root שלם with shalom, wholeness. This family reaches beyond a quiet feeling to include completeness and even restitution, placing the plague’s restraint beside a vocabulary of restoration.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar word shares the offering’s root and makes its language of wholeness audible.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
It shows that the root carries completeness, not only an undisturbed feeling.
shillem: To repay, recompense, or make restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch shows the root’s reach into making good what is owed, alongside its sense of wholeness.
עֹלוֹת
ʿolot
GROWS FROM
עלה
To rise, ascend, or go up.
Both the noun for burnt offerings and the verb translated “offered” in this verse come from עלה, “to rise.” Hebrew places the altar action in the language of ascent, a movement that the English label can obscure.
ALSO GROWS
wayyaʿal: He brought up or offered.
וַיַּעַל
The verb translated “offered” in this verse comes from the same root, binding the act to the offering’s upward sense.
ʿaliyyah: An ascent or rising.
עֲלִיָּה
This noun preserves the root’s movement upward.
וַתֵּעָצַר
vatteʿāṣar
GROWS FROM
עצר
To restrain, hold back, or shut in.
“held back” in this verse is vatteʿāṣar. The verb behind “was stayed” belongs to a root for restraining or holding back. The sentence presents the plague as checked from Israel, rather than as something that simply fades away.
ALSO GROWS
ʿatsar: To restrain, hold back, or stop.
עָצַר
This is the verb family that describes the plague’s cessation in the verse.
ʿāṣūr: Held back or detained.
עָצוּר
This related form gives the stopping a sense of containment rather than disappearance.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, peace language carries the shape of wholeness restored where harm or unrest presses in.
If his drawing near is a wholeness offering from the herd, male or female, he brings it near whole before the LORD.And the work of alignment will be wholeness, and the service of alignment will be stillness and trust for the ages.Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.THE THREAD
Faithful love and truth meet; alignment and wholeness kiss.The word translated “peace” is שָׁלוֹם (shalom), from the same ש־ל־ם root as the shelamim offerings here. This verse pictures that wholeness meeting mercy, truth, and alignment, opening the offering’s name as a vision of restored relation.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us