What Does 2 Kings 17:5 Mean in the King James?
Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
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 for “besieged” makes constriction itself the weapon: Samaria is hemmed in, and the pressure lasts three years.
THE MEANING
A force can surround the place where you live until movement is narrowed, and this verse gives that violence its name: a siege. Three years marks the confinement as sustained rather than passing. The image holds a city under pressure without softening the harm.
THE ROOT
וַיָּצַר
wayyāṣar
GROWS FROM
צור
ṣûr
To confine, hem in, or besiege.
The verb turns pressure into a spatial act: the city is enclosed until its room to move is diminished. Its related words name both the siege and the fortification that sustains the enclosure; the Hebrew makes the mechanism of constriction visible beneath “besieged.”
ALSO GROWS
māṣôr: Siege or siegeworks.
מָצוֹר
This branch names the encircling pressure itself, showing that the verse describes an imposed condition, not simply an attack.
məṣûrāh: Fortification or siegework.
מְצוּרָה
This branch evokes the structure that holds an enclosure in place, echoing the verse’s three years of sustained confinement.
THE PATTERN
Encirclement turns force into prolonged confinement by closing a place in from every side.
And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.The Hebrew for “distress,” מֵצַר (mēṣar, narrow place), gives pressure a spatial shape, as the siege verb does here. The psalm moves from that narrowing into מֶרְחָב (merḥav, spacious place), opening the image of confinement toward room.
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