What Does 2 Kings 1:4 Mean in the King James?

Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.

2 Kings 1:4 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The bed holds the king in place, but it cannot hold death back.

THE MEANING

The verse confronts the reader with a body that cannot rise and a death named without euphemism. Elijah’s name, ⁨אֵלִיָּהוּ⁩ (ʾĒliyyāhû, “My God is YHWH”), keeps the source of the sentence in view as he departs.

THE ROOT

מוֹת תָּמוּת

môt tāmût

GROWS FROM

מות

to die; to perish

“surely die” in this verse is môt tāmût. The Hebrew says, literally, “dying, you will die”: the same root appears first in the infinitive absolute and then in the finite verb. English compresses that repetition into “surely,” concealing how the sentence makes certainty by saying death twice.

ALSO GROWS

māwet: death

מָוֶת

The noun comes from the same root, naming the outcome made certain by the doubled verb.

mēt: dead; a dead person

מֵת

The same root links the act of dying to the resulting state of being dead.

THE PATTERN

Scripture names death as a certain boundary, whether stated as a sentence, an outcome, or an appointment.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:17 · KJVThe same Hebrew death root repeats in “shalt surely die,” making the declared outcome emphatic.

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James 1:15 · KJVDeath is named as the outcome at the end of a process.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Hebrews 9:27 · KJVDeath appears as a boundary appointed for human life.

THE THREAD

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Genesis 3:4 · KJV

Genesis 3:4 repeats the same root phrase, ⁨מוֹת תָּמוּת⁩ (môt tāmût), but negates it: “Ye shall not surely die.” The shared wording exposes the fault line between the two verses: whether death is certain.

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