What Does 2 Samuel 24:6 Mean?
Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtimhodshi, and they came to Danjaan, and went around to Zidon.
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
Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and about to Zidon,THE KEY
The repeated Hebrew verb “they came” makes this list a measure of reach: each named arrival carries the sweep farther.
THE MEANING
You see the survey advance through named places: Gilead, Tahtim-hodshi, Dan-jaan, then around toward Zidon. Each arrival marks another point in the widening sweep, making the extent of the movement visible.
THE ROOT
וַיָּבֹאוּ
wayyāḇōʾû
GROWS FROM
בוא
To come, enter, or arrive
The Hebrew repeats וַיָּבֹאוּ, “they came,” twice, making arrival the verse’s organizing beat: the list advances by entry points. The same root yields מָבוֹא, an entrance, and תְּבוּאָה, produce that comes in, holding arrival and incoming yield together.
ALSO GROWS
māvoʾ: Entrance; entryway
מָבוֹא
This branch makes explicit the sense of coming into a place that underlies the repeated arrivals.
tevuʾāh: Produce; yield
תְּבוּאָה
The root also names what comes in as a harvest, extending the sense of arrival from a place to its incoming yield.
סָבִיב
sāvîv
GROWS FROM
סבב
To turn, go around, or encircle
“went around” in this verse is sāvîv. The word translated “about” gives the line a curved edge: after Dan-jaan, the reach is described around toward Zidon. Its consonantal family carries the sense of circling and surrounding, so the phrase maps a perimeter as well as a destination.
ALSO GROWS
sāvaḇ: To turn or go around
סָבַב
This verb shares the root consonants and clarifies the circling motion in the verse’s “about.”
sōvēḇ: Turning; circling
סוֹבֵב
This form makes the surrounding movement visible in the word family behind the route.
THE PATTERN
Movement through a place becomes visible when the text names the places reached and the extent covered.
Rise, walk through the land in its length and in its breadth, for I will give it to you.And the men went and crossed through the land, and wrote it by cities into seven parts in a scroll, and turned back to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh.But you will take hold of power when the Set-Apart Breath comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the farthest edge of the ground.THE THREAD
Lift up your heads, O gates; and be lifted up, O doors of the ages; and the King of weight enters.Psalm 24:7 uses the same Hebrew root בוא (bōʾ, “come” or “enter”) for the King’s entry. Here, repeated arrivals trace movement across regions; there, arrival meets a gate. The shared verb lets this itinerary echo the image of reaching a threshold and entering.
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