What Does 2 Kings 18:37 Mean in the King James?
Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab-shakeh.
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 torn clothes make distress visible, and the report makes its cause audible: the crisis moves into the king’s hearing.
THE MEANING
Your distress may show before you can speak it; here, the torn clothes arrive with those carrying the threat, and then its words reach Hezekiah. The verse holds visible rupture and spoken report together, so the crisis becomes hearable rather than remaining unnamed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that distress must be hidden or made presentable before its words can be heard.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרְעוּ
wayyiqreʿu
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ע
Q-R-ʿ
To tear, split, or rend.
English gives the completed gesture, “rent,” while the Hebrew root also names a tear itself, the opening left by tearing. Their distress is visible on their clothing before they carry the words to Hezekiah.
ALSO GROWS
qaraʿ: To tear or rend.
קָרַע
This verb names the physical tearing shown in the verse.
qeraʿ: A tear or rent.
קֶרַע
The noun names the visible opening left by the act of tearing.
וַיַּגִּידוּ
wayyaggidu
GROWS FROM
נ־ג־ד
N-G-D
To stand out or come to the front; to make known or declare.
“told” in this verse is wayyaggidu. The word for telling belongs to a root family that carries the sense of bringing something into view. The threat is set before Hezekiah as a report instead of remaining unnamed pressure.
ALSO GROWS
neged: In front of or opposite.
נֶגֶד
The report brings the words before Hezekiah.
nagid: Leader or one out in front.
נָגִיד
The root’s sense of standing in front echoes the leader who receives the report.
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
D-B-R
Word or matter; to speak or utter.
The Hebrew for “words” comes from davar, whose range holds both a spoken word and a matter or thing. Rabshakeh’s speech is the matter now being carried into Hezekiah’s hearing.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The reported words are also the matter being brought before the king.
dibber: To speak or utter.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes speech itself part of the root’s word family.
THE PATTERN
When distress is too large to keep private, torn clothing and spoken words carry it into another person’s hearing.
And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out,THE THREAD
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.Both verses use qaraʿ (קָרַע, to tear): here the garments are rent, while Joel uses the same verb for rending the heart. That shared root opens the visible rupture toward the inner place where distress is felt.
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