What Does 2 Samuel 6:18 Mean?
And as soon as David had finished sending up the rising offerings and the wholeness offerings, he blessed the people in the nature of the LORD of hosts.
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 as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.THE KEY
The blessing carries the LORD’s nature to the people, while the peace offering’s name holds wholeness in the act that comes before it.
THE MEANING
You meet a blessing spoken over a people after the offerings are complete. To bless in the LORD’s shem (שֵׁם, name as nature) is to speak from the character of the LORD of hosts, while the shelamim (שְׁלָמִים, peace offerings) carry the sense of wholeness. The verse holds communal blessing and wholeness in the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that invoking God’s name is a verbal formula: the name is the LORD’s nature, the character that gives the blessing its meaning.
THE ROOT
וַיְבָרֶךְ
wayevarekh
GROWS FROM
ב־ר־ך
b-r-k
To bend the knee; to bless.
“blessed” in this verse is wayevarekh. The same root connects blessing with the knee, bringing a bodily posture into what can sound in English like a vague good wish. Here the blessing is spoken over the people in the nature of the LORD of hosts.
ALSO GROWS
berakhah: blessing
בְּרָכָה
This related form names the blessing spoken over the people.
berekh: knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The shared root links blessing with bending the knee, a posture of honoring.
שְׁלָמִים
shelamim
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
“wholeness offerings” in this verse is shelamim. The Hebrew name of the peace offerings carries the sense of wholeness within it. The verse places them before the blessing, holding wholeness and blessing together in the same act.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
The shared root reveals wholeness beneath the English phrase peace offerings.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch echoes the completed offerings that precede the blessing.
THE PATTERN
A blessing spoken over people carries the character and provision of the one who blesses.
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the ground will be blessed.The LORD bless you, and guard you.And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting his hands, he blessed them.THE THREAD
And they shall set my nature upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.Numbers brings the same pair together explicitly: the LORD’s name is placed upon the people, and blessing follows. Read as name-as-nature, it opens this verse’s blessing as speech carried by the character of the LORD.
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