What Does 2 Kings 2:22 Mean in the King James?
So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
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 verse names the water itself as healed, so restoration reaches the source from which life flows.
THE MEANING
The source is not fixed in its damaged state: the waters are healed, and that restoration holds. What carries death can become life-bearing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that damage at the source is permanent: the waters are healed, and that healing endures.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּרָפְאוּ
wayyērāfʾû
GROWS FROM
רפא
r-p-ʾ
To heal, restore to soundness.
“healed” in this verse is wayyērāfʾû. The Hebrew verb makes the waters themselves the recipients of healing: their condition is restored, and the change lasts “unto this day.” Its sound echoes רָפָה (raphah, release, let your hands drop), but the final consonants differ, this verb ends in א (aleph), while רָפָה ends in ה (he); they are distinct roots, so here the word itself says healing.
ALSO GROWS
rōfēʾ: Healer
רֹפֵא
The healer is named by the same action the waters receive: they are restored by healing.
refuʾah: Healing, cure
רְפוּאָה
This noun names healing as a condition or remedy; here the result is a changed condition that continues.
THE PATTERN
Healing reaches what sustains life, removing death from its source and restoring its life-bearing flow.
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.He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.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
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.The word translated “healed” comes from רפא (rapha, heal), the same root used for the waters here. Psalm 107 joins healing with deliverance from destruction; in 2 Kings, that restoration reaches the waters themselves.
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