What Does 1 Kings 2:36 Mean in the King James?
And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The king’s “sending” gives Shimei a house while restricting his exit, showing how a placement can look like release and function as confinement.
THE MEANING
The king gives Shimei a house in Jerusalem and makes the city the edge of his movement. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim: the two wholenesses) is both his dwelling and his boundary here; a place associated with wholeness does not by itself mean freedom to leave.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that receiving a home means receiving freedom dissolves here: Shimei has a house, but the king decides whether he may leave.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayishlach
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send, send forth, release.
The root can name sending someone away or releasing them, but here the king sends Shimei into a place where his movement is restricted. The word’s range holds a sharp tension: being sent does not necessarily mean being free.
ALSO GROWS
yeshalleḥem: He will let them go or send them away (Exodus 6:1).
יְשַׁלְּחֵם
There the same root names release; here the king’s sending defines where Shimei must remain.
shilluach: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This form makes the root’s power to move someone from a place visible, against the order that confines Shimei to Jerusalem.
תֵצֵא
tetze
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ts-ʾ
Go out, come forth, depart.
“go forth” in this verse is tetze. The prohibition reaches beyond where Shimei lives to whether he can leave. The root can describe emergence and departure; here that outward movement is precisely what the king forbids.
ALSO GROWS
yotse: One who goes out.
יוֹצֵא
This form names the person in motion; Shimei is told not to become one who exits the city.
yetsi'ah: Going out or departure.
יְצִיאָה
The root gives a concrete name to the movement the command prohibits.
שִׁמְעִי
Shimʿi
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen.
Shimei’s name is rooted in hearing. The one named for hearing is summoned and placed under a spoken limit.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
The root behind Shimei’s name makes the king’s summons and command part of the name’s sound and sense.
shemu'ah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch carries hearing into what is received as a message, echoing the king’s spoken boundary.
THE PATTERN
A person may occupy a place while another power governs the boundary of their movement.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.THE THREAD
Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.“Sent” and “let them go” translate forms of שָׁלַח (shalach: send, send forth, release). Shimei is sent to a place he may not leave, while Exodus uses the same root for release from imposed confinement.
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