What Does 2 Kings 13:21 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
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
Even what death leaves behind can carry life across the grave’s boundary.
THE MEANING
A dead man is lowered into a grave, touches Elisha’s bones, and lives. Death seems to have closed the story, yet what remains of Elisha becomes the point where life returns. The verse holds that reversal in the body itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Death does not have absolute custody over what can happen next.
THE ROOT
וַיְחִי
wayeḥî
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live, be alive, or revive.
The verb rendered “revived” comes from the ordinary Hebrew verb for living. The same root names both the living and life itself, so the verse describes life returning without separating that return from the act of living.
ALSO GROWS
chay: Living; alive.
חַי
The dead man’s return belongs to the same root-language as being alive.
chayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
This related form names life itself, placing the man’s rising within the root’s wider language of living.
THE PATTERN
In Scripture, the boundary of death does not prevent life from returning.
And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.THE THREAD
And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.Both accounts use וַיְחִי (wayeḥî, “and he lived”), from חיה (chayah, “to live, revive”). In one, a child lives again; in the other, a dead man lives at Elisha’s bones. The KJV’s different phrasing hides their shared Hebrew verb.
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