What Does 2 Kings 10:17 Mean in the King James?
And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the LORD, which he spake to Elijah.
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 Hebrew davar can mean both “word” and “matter,” and this verse presents the LORD’s spoken judgment as the violent event that removes every survivor from Ahab’s house.
THE MEANING
The verse holds together a judgment declared and violence enacted: everyone left from Ahab’s house in Samaria is killed. It keeps the human cost visible while calling this destruction the fulfillment of what the LORD spoke to Elijah.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a spoken judgment is only language: here, the verse presents the destruction as the word reaching fulfillment.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, davar can mean a word, matter, or affair.
The verse uses forms of the same root for “saying” and “spake.” That echo makes the judgment more than a quotation: the narrated violence is described as what the spoken word foretold.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or affair
דָּבָר
The word for the LORD’s saying can also name a matter or affair, joining the declaration to what takes place.
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֶּר
This is the verb translated “spake” later in the verse, repeating the root behind “saying.”
הִשְׁמִידוֹ
hishmido
GROWS FROM
שׁמד
To destroy or bring to ruin.
“destroyed” in this verse is hishmido. The word describes destruction carried through to its completion. Its force sits beside “all that remained,” making the verse’s scope explicit: no one left from Ahab’s house in Samaria escapes this killing.
ALSO GROWS
hishmid: Destroy, annihilate
הִשְׁמִיד
This causative form shares the verse’s root and names the act of bringing about destruction.
nishmad: Be destroyed, perish
נִשְׁמַד
This form describes the one undergoing destruction, showing the same root from the other side of the act.
הַנִּשְׁאָרִים
hannish'arim
GROWS FROM
שאר
To remain or be left over.
The people called “those who remained” are a remnant, but remaining is no protection in this sentence. The verse moves from what is left of Ahab’s house to the killing of all of it.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: Remnant, remainder
שְׁאֵרִית
This noun names what is left over, the same condition described by “all that remained.”
nish'ar: Was left, remained
נִשְׁאַר
This verb form shares the verse’s root and makes “remaining” a continuing state, not an escape from what follows.
THE PATTERN
A declared judgment moves from spoken word to an enacted event.
Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:THE THREAD
Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:The same Hebrew root, דבר (d-b-r), appears in both verses as “word” and “spake.” Here the death of Jezebel is called fulfillment of what Elijah spoke; the verse opens the same link between the spoken judgment and the violence enacted against Ahab’s remaining house.
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