What Does 2 Kings 18:19 Mean in the King James?

And Rab-shakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

2 Kings 18:19 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

“Confidence” and “trustest” grow from the same Hebrew root, so the taunt questions both the claimed security and what it rests on.

THE MEANING

A powerful voice challenges the reader’s sense of security: what is this confidence, and what are you trusting? The same Hebrew root appears in the noun for confidence and the verb for trust, holding the security claimed and the act of relying on it together. The speaker’s contempt is part of the force; the question is meant to unsettle.

THE ROOT

הַבִּטָּחוֹן

ha-bittaḥon

GROWS FROM

בטח

b-ṭ-ḥ

Trust, rely securely; be confident.

“confidence / trustest” in this verse is ha-bittaḥon. “Confidence” and “trustest” both grow from ⁨בטח⁩ (b-ṭ-ḥ, trust or rely securely). Hebrew holds the security named and the act of relying on it within one root, sharpening the question about what that security rests on.

ALSO GROWS

bataḥ: Trust, rely on, feel secure.

בָּטַח

This is the verb rendered “trustest”; the act of trusting shares its root with the confidence being questioned.

mivtaḥ: Refuge, security, confidence.

מִבְטָח

This branch makes trust visible as a place of safety, the ground a person relies on.

beṭaḥ: Security; securely.

בֶּטַח

This branch names the state of being secure, linking the feeling of safety to the act of trusting.

חִזְקִיָּהוּ

ḥizqiyyahu

GROWS FROM

חזק

ḥ-z-q

Be strong; strengthen.

“Hezekiah” in this verse is ḥizqiyyahu. The name combines the root for strength with ⁨יה⁩ (Yah, a shortened form of the LORD’s name) and is commonly understood as “YHWH strengthens.” The question about confidence therefore touches the name’s own claim about where strength comes from.

ALSO GROWS

ḥazaq: Be strong; grow strong; strengthen.

חָזַק

This verbal form carries the strength-root present in Hezekiah’s name.

ḥizzeq: Make strong; strengthen.

חִזֵּק

This form emphasizes strength as something imparted, echoing the name’s sense of the LORD as the source of strength.

THE PATTERN

A person’s sense of security is exposed by asking what it is placed in.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Psalm 20:7 · KJVThis names military force as one possible object of trust and sets it beside trust in the LORD.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

Jeremiah 17:7 · KJVIt shows confidence taking its shape from the one in whom trust is placed.

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

2 Corinthians 1:9 · KJVIt exposes self-reliance and names God as the ground of trust.

THE THREAD

He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

2 Kings 18:5 · KJV

The same Hebrew verb ⁨בָּטַח⁩ (bataḥ, trust or rely securely) appears in both verses. Here the speaker questions Hezekiah’s confidence; 18:5 names the LORD God of Israel as the object of that trust.

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