What Does 2 Kings 2:21 Mean in the King James?
And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
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 healing reaches the source, so death no longer flows downstream.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now to the place where life is supplied: that source can be healed, and its output no longer carries death or bereavement. Restoration reaches the waters themselves, at their place of emergence, so what depends on them is no longer cut off.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The source is too damaged to change; everything it feeds must remain barren.
THE ROOT
רִפִּאתִי
rippēʾtî
GROWS FROM
רפא
To heal or restore to health; here, “I have healed.”
רִפִּאתִי (rippēʾtî, I have healed) belongs to the root רפא (rapha, heal), which also gives רֹפֵא (rōfēʾ, healer) and רְפוּאָה (refuʾah, healing or cure). רָפָה (raphah, release or let the hands drop) is a distinct root with a close consonant echo; together they suggest healing as loosening death’s grip, while this verse specifically declares healing.
ALSO GROWS
rōfēʾ: Healer
רֹפֵא
The agent of healing belongs to the same root as the act declared over the waters.
refuʾah: Healing, cure
רְפוּאָה
The root can name both the healing act and the restored condition.
מוֹצָא
mōṣāʾ
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out or emerge.
“spring of the waters” in this verse is mōṣāʾ. מוֹצָא (mōṣāʾ, outlet or source) frames the spring as the place the water comes out. The same root gives יָצָא (yāṣāʾ, go out) and הוֹצִיא (hōṣîʾ, bring out), drawing attention to the point of emergence: when the source is healed, what flows from it changes.
ALSO GROWS
yāṣāʾ: Go out, emerge
יָצָא
The spring is named through the motion of water coming out.
hōṣîʾ: Bring out, cause to emerge
הוֹצִיא
The root’s causative form highlights an emergence that can be changed at its source.
וּמְשַׁכֶּלֶת
ūmešakkélet
GROWS FROM
שכל
To bereave, miscarry, or suffer loss.
“barren land” in this verse is ūmešakkélet. The Hebrew מְשַׁכֶּלֶת (mešakkélet, bereaving or miscarrying) carries the idea of life being cut off before it can bear fruit. Beside מָוֶת (māvet, death), it evokes both life ended and life prevented from reaching birth.
ALSO GROWS
shākal: Bereave, miscarry
שָׁכַל
The verb makes barrenness a loss of life, not merely an empty landscape.
shākûl: Bereaved, deprived of offspring
שָׁכוּל
This branch names the grief left when life is cut off.
THE PATTERN
Life returns when what feeds the land is healed at its source.
And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.THE THREAD
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.The same root רפא (rapha, heal) appears in both verses: here it is declared over the waters, and in Jeremiah it is spoken over the person. The shared word joins a restored source with a restored life.
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