What Does 2 Samuel 6:8 Mean?
And David burned, because the LORD had broken through upon Uzzah, and he called that place Perez-uzzah, the breach of Uzzah, to this day.
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 was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perez-uzzah to this day.THE KEY
Hebrew repeats the same root in the LORD’s action and in “breach,” then preserves it in the place-name Perez-Uzzah.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the rupture in view: the LORD’s breach is upon Uzzah, David is displeased, and that breach gives the place its name. The repeated word binds the act to its memorial, without making the violence easier to explain. David’s displeasure remains part of what the verse says.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that an act attributed to God must feel immediately consoling or comprehensible: David is displeased, and the verse leaves that response intact.
THE ROOT
פָּרַץ
parats
GROWS FROM
פרץ
p-r-ts
Break through or burst open; by extension, a breach or rupture.
“broken through upon” in this verse is parats. English separates the action from the breach, while Hebrew repeats the same root in פָּרַץ (parats, “break through”) and פֶּרֶץ (perets, “breach”). The place-name פֶּרֶץ עֻזָּה (perets-ʿUzzah, “breach of Uzzah”) carries that rupture forward as a memorial.
ALSO GROWS
parats: Break through, burst forth.
פָּרַץ
This is the verb describing the LORD’s action; it shares its root with the breach that follows.
perets: Breach, rupture, or breaking forth.
פֶּרֶץ
The noun names the event and then becomes part of the place-name, binding action and memory.
עֻזָּה
ʿUzzah
GROWS FROM
עזז
ʿ-z-z
Be strong; exert strength.
Uzzah’s name is associated with strength. In Perez-Uzzah, that name stands beside perets, the breach upon him, sharpening the force of the place-name without explaining away the violence.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength, might.
עֹז
This related noun echoes the strength carried in Uzzah’s name.
ʿaz: Strong, fierce, mighty.
עָז
This related form keeps the sense of force and strength audible beside the breach.
THE PATTERN
The root פ־ר־ץ (p-r-ts, “break through”) names a force that breaches a boundary and opens passage, with consequences shaped by what it breaks into.
And it came to be, as he drew back his hand, and behold, his brother came out, and she said, How have you broken through? Let this breach be upon you. Therefore his name was called Pharez, the breach.And David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there, and said, The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim, lord of breaches.The one who breaks through goes up before them. They break through, pass through the gate, and go out through it. Their king passes before them, and the LORD is at their head.THE THREAD
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there, and said, The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim, lord of breaches.David uses this same root when he names Baal-perazim after the LORD breaks through his enemies. Here, the root names the breach upon Uzzah and remains bound to David’s displeasure, carrying its force across scenes with sharply different consequences.
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