What Does 2 Kings 17:6 Mean in the King James?
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
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 verb for exile also carries the sense of uncovering: deportation strips people from home and leaves them exposed to another power’s control.
THE MEANING
The verse makes forced displacement visible: a people are taken from their land and assigned places by the power that conquers them. Being placed does not undo being carried away; the second action completes the first.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the claim that resettlement makes forced removal harmless: Israel is placed only after being carried away.
THE ROOT
וַיֶּגֶל
wayyeḡel
GROWS FROM
גלה
To uncover or expose; in this verb, to carry into exile.
“carried away” in this verse is wayyeḡel. The root’s range holds uncovering and exile together: carrying a people away leaves them exposed as well as displaced. The verse then pairs that removal with a verb meaning “made them dwell,” showing the conqueror controls both departure and resettlement.
ALSO GROWS
galah: To uncover or reveal.
גָּלָה
This sense of the root makes the exposure carried by exile visible alongside the physical removal.
higlah: To deport or lead into exile.
הִגְלָה
This causative form names the act of making someone go into exile, matching the forced removal in the verse.
וַיֹּשֶׁב
wayyoshev
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, remain, or dwell.
“placed” in this verse is wayyoshev. The Hebrew says the conqueror “made them dwell” in named places after carrying them away. The pairing shows that settlement here is part of the imposed displacement, not evidence that it was voluntary.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit or dwell.
יָשַׁב
The base verb makes clear that “placed” means assigning the people a dwelling place.
moshav: A dwelling place or seat.
מוֹשָׁב
This noun names the settled place that follows the act of making the people dwell.
THE PATTERN
Power can scatter a people across imposed places, yet scripture keeps naming them together and speaks of their gathering.
And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.THE THREAD
And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.Jeremiah uses the same root, גלה, for Judah’s removal from its land. Here Israel is carried into Assyria; there Judah is carried out of its own land, the same verb holds both kingdoms in the exposed condition of exile.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us