What Does 2 Kings 20:16 Mean in the King James?
And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.
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 command to hear already holds listening and response together.
THE MEANING
The call reaches you before the message is laid open, so attention comes before certainty about what you will hear. Here, hearing means receptive heed, not sound merely passing by.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that hearing is complete once information reaches the ear: its Hebrew verb can carry listening into response.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַע
shema
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed.
“Hear” in this verse is shema. The imperative here calls for more than sound reaching the ear: the root can carry listening into heed and response. The command makes hearing an active reception of what follows.
ALSO GROWS
shemuah: A report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows hearing as the way a message is received.
shomea: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
It names the hearer as someone attending to the message, not merely registering a sound.
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak or declare; in noun forms, a word or matter.
The word here is not only an abstract idea: this noun can name both speech and a matter. The LORD’s word arrives as an utterance with substance, something to be reckoned with.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch keeps the word connected to the act of speaking.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
The same root can name what is spoken and the matter the speech brings before the hearer.
THE PATTERN
In Scripture, hearing reaches its purpose when what is heard takes hold in a response.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.The word translated “hear” shares the same Hebrew root in both verses, carrying the sense of attentive heed. Isaiah 55:3 links that hearing with life, opening the command in 2 Kings as a call to receive a word that matters.
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