What Does 2 Kings 10:6 Mean in the King James?
Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
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
Hebrew uses one root for the city’s “great men” and their “bringing up” the heirs, then tests their loyalty by whether they take those heirs’ heads.
THE MEANING
A claim of belonging is put on trial through what someone does with the king’s voice. The demanded act is bodily and explicit: take the heads of the master’s sons. The men carrying out that command are also the city’s great men who have raised those sons, so care, status, and lethal obedience occupy the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that loyalty is only a claim or feeling: here the king defines it through a brutal command.
THE ROOT
גְּדֹלֵי
gedolei
GROWS FROM
גדל
to grow, become great, or raise
“great men / brought them up” in this verse is gedolei. Hebrew uses גדל for both the city’s “great men” and their “bringing up” the sons. English separates the words, hiding the echo between the men’s stature and the care they give the heirs they are ordered to behead.
ALSO GROWS
gadal: grow, become great
גָּדַל
The city’s “great men” are described through this same root of greatness.
giddel: rear, raise, bring up
גִּדֵּל
This branch names the care these men provide the king’s sons before they receive the command against them.
שֹׁמְעִים
shomʿim
GROWS FROM
שמע
to hear, listen, heed, or respond
“hearken” in this verse is shomʿim. The phrase is literally “if to my voice you are listening”: שמע describes listening that answers, not sound merely entering the ear. Here, the king makes that response the test of belonging, and its cost is unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
shema: hear; listen and respond
שְׁמַע
This imperative comes from the same root and carries the responsive sense of the command to hear.
shemuʿah: report, news; something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
The root also names what comes through hearing, linking reception of a voice to what the hearer takes in.
רָאשֵׁי
rashei
GROWS FROM
ראש
head, top, first, or chief
The requested heads are literal body parts, and the same root also carries the sense of what stands at the top or first. The word holds the bodily beheading and the removal of the master’s sons from any possible succession in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: head; top; chief
רֹאשׁ
This is the singular form behind “heads,” retaining both the bodily and headship senses.
reshit: beginning; first
רֵאשִׁית
This branch shows how the same root extends from the head to what comes first.
THE PATTERN
A voice makes claimed allegiance visible through the action it elicits.
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.Both verses pair שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear or heed) with קוֹל (qol, voice); Genesis uses that same Hebrew pairing in “obeyed my voice.” The echo shows how this language makes hearing a response in action, which in this verse is the king’s test of belonging.
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