What Does 2 Samuel 5:15 Mean?
Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia.
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
Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia,THE KEY
This list compresses choosing, deliverance, and brightness into names, treating a name as more than a label.
THE MEANING
Here, a name carries nature in miniature: Ibhar holds the sense of choosing, Elishua points to God as deliverance, and Japhia carries the sense of shining forth. The line lets identity appear as something spoken into a name.
THE ROOT
אֱלִישׁוּעַ
ʾĔlîšûaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver, bring out; deliverance.
The deliverance element in Elishua belongs to the same root as the verb translated “saved.” The name carries an action within it: being brought out.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaʿ: Deliver; bring out.
יָשַׁע
This verb gives the name’s deliverance element an active sense: someone is brought out of danger or constriction.
yešûʿāh: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the same root’s outcome, making Elishua read as a declaration about God’s nature.
יִבְחָר
Yibḥār
GROWS FROM
בחר
Choose; select.
Ibhar carries choosing as an action inside the name. The same root can name both the act of choosing and what is chosen, so the name holds agency and selection together.
ALSO GROWS
bāḥar: Choose; select.
בָּחַר
This is the verb behind Ibhar’s sense of “he chooses.”
mibḥār: Choice; choicest selection.
מִבְחָר
This branch shows the root can describe both choosing and the selected thing.
יָפִיעַ
Yāfîaʿ
GROWS FROM
יפע
Shine forth; appear in brightness.
Japhia carries brightness as something that appears and shines forth. The name’s root gives radiance a movement from hidden to visible.
ALSO GROWS
yāfaʿ: Shine forth.
יָפַע
This verb shares the name’s root and makes its brightness active.
hôfîaʿ: Appear; shine forth.
הוֹפִיעַ
This form shows the root’s sense of brightness becoming visible.
THE PATTERN
A scriptural name can carry its bearer’s nature or calling in compressed form.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.And the nations shall see your alignment, and all kings your weight; and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.THE THREAD
So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and drove off their cattle, and struck them down with a great blow. So David delivered the settlers of Keilah.Elishua (אֱלִישׁוּעַ, ʾĔlîšûaʿ) carries the root יָשַׁע (yāšaʿ), “deliver, bring out,” which appears as “saved” here. The name’s compact claim opens into an actual movement: people are brought out of danger.
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