What Does 2 Kings 15:25 Mean in the King James?
But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his room.
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 verse names conspiracy as a binding: fifty men become one force, and the king’s own house becomes the place where his throne is taken.
THE MEANING
The verse shows how a bound alliance can turn a king’s own house into the site of his killing and replacement. Here succession is not an orderly transfer: the reigning king is killed, and his place is occupied.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A king’s palace guarantees his safety; here, violence reaches him inside the king’s own house.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְשֹׁר
wayyiqshōr
GROWS FROM
קשר
q-sh-r
to tie, bind, or fasten together
English “conspired” names the intent; qashar also carries the image of binding people together. The plot becomes a joined act of violence, ending with the king killed and his place taken.
ALSO GROWS
qāshar: to tie or bind
קָשַׁר
The physical sense beneath the political act pictures separate people joined into one force.
qesher: a bond, confederacy, or conspiracy
קֶשֶׁר
The same root names both the joining and the plot it produces, revealing the binding inside the word “conspired.”
פֶּקַח
Pəqaḥ
GROWS FROM
פקח
p-q-ḥ
to open, especially the eyes
Pekah’s name carries the sense “open-eyed.” Beside qashar, the name places opened sight next to the binding of men into a plot.
ALSO GROWS
pāqaḥ: to open, especially the eyes
פָּקַח
This verb carries the opening-of-sight sense at the root of Pekah’s name.
piqqēaḥ: seeing or clear-sighted
פִּקֵּחַ
This form carries the same root into a description of one whose eyes are open.
THE PATTERN
When power becomes something to seize, conspiracy binds people into a force that challenges or kills the one who holds it.
And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.And his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of his house in Tirzah.And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counsellor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.THE THREAD
And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.The same Hebrew root, qashar, names Shallum’s conspiracy and Pekah’s. In both verses, binding into a plot leads through killing to the seizure of the king’s place.
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