What Does 2 Samuel 3:5 Mean?
And the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.
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 the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.THE KEY
This son is named not in isolation, but through a mother, a beloved father, and a birthplace whose name means joining.
THE MEANING
The line presents life as relationally located: Ithream is born through Eglah, to David, in Hebron. Names and place hold together a person’s beginnings as part of a living web of kinship and belonging.
THE ROOT
יֻלְּדוּ
yullədu
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
To bear, beget, or bring forth.
“were born to” in this verse is yullədu. The word for “born” shares its root with “child” and “generations”: one birth belongs to a sequence, not a sealed moment. The verse keeps Ithream, his parents, and his birthplace inside the same act of bringing forth.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or beget.
יָלַד
The root verb names the bringing forth behind this birth.
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
The child is the person brought forth by the root’s action.
toledot: Generations or descendants.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
The same root carries an individual birth forward into a lineage.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; also associated with kinship.
David’s name carries the nature of the beloved. Here the son’s identity is tied to a father whose name holds affection and kinship within it.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved or kinsman.
דּוֹד
This root word holds together affection and family relation.
dodim: Loves or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
The plural form gives the root an intimate, relational sense.
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥevron
GROWS FROM
חבר
ḥ-b-r
To join, connect, or associate.
Hebron carries the idea of joining in its name, so the verse locates this birth in a place whose name echoes relationship. English gives the location while the Hebrew name also speaks of association.
ALSO GROWS
ḥābar: To join or associate.
חָבַר
This verb gives the root’s basic motion of bringing things together.
ḥāver: Companion or associate.
חָבֵר
The companion is one joined to another, echoing the verse’s web of kinship.
THE PATTERN
Scripture carries a life forward through named relationships and generations.
And the women who were her neighbors called out a name for him, saying, A son is born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.Six were born to him in Hebron, and there he reigned seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
Six were born to him in Hebron, and there he reigned seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years.This verse echoes the six births in Hebron, placing Ithream’s line inside a larger family record. Hebron’s name carries the root of joining, while the same verse binds David’s family and reign to that place.
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