What Does 2 Kings 20:7 Mean in the King James?

And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

2 Kings 20:7 · 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 Hebrew says he “lived”, the treatment is tangible, but the measure of recovery is life returning.

THE MEANING

This verse meets you in the body’s vulnerability: a real wound receives a tangible dressing. Recovery is expressed as living, so restoration here reaches all the way into the body.

THE ROOT

וַיְחִי

vayeḥi

GROWS FROM

חיה

chayah

To live, be alive.

The word rendered “recovered” is literally “he lived.” The root gathers living, life, and living creatures into one family, so the verse names the outcome not merely as a change in the boil but as life present again.

ALSO GROWS

chai: Living; alive.

חַי

The same root names the state the verse says has returned: he is alive.

chayyim: Life; living.

חַיִּים

This branch makes clear that the root concerns life itself, the verse’s deepest measure of recovery.

chayyah: Living creature; animal.

חַיָּה

The root also names living beings, keeping recovery connected to embodied life.

THE PATTERN

Bodily restoration can arrive through ordinary materials applied with practical care.

For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.

Isaiah 38:21 · KJVThe same fig dressing appears as a concrete treatment accompanying recovery.

And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Luke 10:34 · KJVOil, wine, and bandages become practical care placed directly in the service of a wounded body.

Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

1 Timothy 5:23 · KJVA familiar substance is named as care for bodily weakness.

THE THREAD

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 3:7 · KJV

The Hebrew word for fig, ⁨תְּאֵנָה⁩ (te’enah), appears in both passages. In Genesis, fig leaves cover exposed nakedness; here, a fig preparation covers a boil as part of care, holding concealment and healing side by side.

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