What Does 2 Kings 10:13 Mean in the King James?
Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen.
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
They go to greet the royal children with shalom, the language of wholeness, at the threshold of an encounter that ends in mass killing.
THE MEANING
Kinship and peaceful intent do not guarantee safety when another holds power over the encounter. The visitors identify themselves as Ahaziah’s relatives and say they are going to greet the royal children. The next verse makes the danger literal: all forty-two are seized and killed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A family bond and a courteous purpose guarantee protection.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁלֹם
lishlom
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
To be whole, complete, or intact; in other forms, to make good or repay.
“salute” in this verse is lishlom. The verb is built from שׁלם (sh-l-m, to be whole) and describes greeting someone by inquiring after their well-being. Its branches carry both wholeness and making good, placing a wish for intactness at the edge of a scene that turns deadly.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace
שָׁלוֹם
The visitors’ greeting asks after the royal children’s well-being, framing their stated purpose in the language of wholeness.
shillem: Repaid, made good
שִׁלֵּם
This branch carries the root’s sense of completing or making good; it gives the family of words a depth beyond a simple courteous greeting.
THE PATTERN
A greeting of peace invokes wholeness, while the encounter reveals whether that wholeness is present, threatened, or newly offered.
And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive?They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.THE THREAD
They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.The greeting translated “salute” grows from שׁלם (sh-l-m, to be whole), the root behind שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness). Jeremiah sets the word “peace” against its absence, sharpening the tension between the visitors’ greeting and the violence surrounding their encounter.
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