What Does 2 Kings 18:36 Mean in the King James?

But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

2 Kings 18:36 · 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.

THE KEY

The people’s silence is not a void: the king’s command has made it their collective answer.

THE MEANING

The reader now meets a whole people withholding speech under a stated command. Their silence has a shape and a cause; it is a collective act rather than a blank where an answer should be.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that silence always means helplessness dissolves here: the verse names a command as its cause.

THE ROOT

וְהֶחֱרִישׁוּ

wəheḥĕrîšû

GROWS FROM

חרש

ḥ-r-š

Be silent; keep quiet.

“held their peace” in this verse is wəheḥĕrîšû. The verb makes the people’s silence an acted restraint; the sentence then gives its cause in the king’s command. The root opens English “peace” into deliberate quiet, rather than a vague feeling of calm.

ALSO GROWS

taḥărîšûn: You shall be silent; hold your peace.

תַּחֲרִשׁוּן

In Exodus 14:14, the same root names a commanded silence while the LORD fights, showing quiet as a response held in a moment of danger.

kəmaḥărîš: As one keeping silent.

כְּמַחֲרִישׁ

In 1 Samuel 10:27, the same root describes a person who does not answer contempt, revealing silence as restraint under public pressure.

THE PATTERN

Silence can be an intentional response when a moment presses for speech.

The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

Exodus 14:14 · KJVThe same root names a silence held under command while the LORD fights.

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

Ecclesiastes 3:7 · KJVSilence has its own place beside speech, showing that an answer is not called for in every moment.

But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

Mark 14:61 · KJVA direct question meets silence, showing that pressure to speak does not itself produce an answer.

THE THREAD

The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

Exodus 14:14 · KJV

Exodus uses the same Hebrew verb translated “held their peace” here, with the sense “keep silent.” The shared root places the two silences beside each other: each is a restrained response in a moment of danger, and Exodus names the LORD as the one who fights.

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