What Does 2 Kings 25:1 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.
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
Jerusalem’s name carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), yet the verse places that wholeness inside a ring of siege.
THE MEANING
A whole army turns Jerusalem’s boundary into pressure: it camps against the city and builds siegeworks around it. The city whose name carries wholeness is physically enclosed, with the force closing in from every side.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a name of wholeness makes violence impossible: Jerusalem carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) even as it comes under siege.
THE ROOT
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; bring to wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name carries the שׁלם (sh-l-m, wholeness) word-family, placing the city’s wholeness beside its physical enclosure. English leaves the place-name mostly opaque, but the verse holds both meanings in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The name’s shalom resonance remains present even as the besiegers close around the city.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch sharpens the gap between the wholeness carried by the name and the city’s present enclosure.
סָבִיב
saviv
GROWS FROM
סבב
s-b-b
Turn, go around, or surround.
The root turns “round about” into an action of circling, not just a location. The siege makes the city’s perimeter the means of pressure, leaving no side outside the enclosure.
ALSO GROWS
sabab: To turn, go around, or surround.
סָבַב
This verb shows the besiegers actively encircling Jerusalem rather than merely gathering nearby.
sevivot: Surroundings; the area around something.
סְבִיבוֹת
The word-family makes the city’s surrounding space part of the siege itself.
וַיִּחַן
wayyiḥan
GROWS FROM
חנה
ḥ-n-h
To camp or encamp.
“pitched” in this verse is wayyiḥan. The Hebrew verb חנה (ḥ-n-h, encamp) makes the camp itself part of the act of surrounding the city. Psalm 34:7 uses the same verb for a protective encampment, showing that the force of this image depends on who occupies the perimeter and what the enclosure does.
ALSO GROWS
maḥaneh: Camp; encampment; host or army.
מַחֲנֶה
The army is the camp made visible around Jerusalem.
ḥoneh: One who camps or is encamped.
חֹנֶה
Psalm 34:7 uses this form for the LORD’s messenger encamped around people, revealing a protective use of the same verb.
THE PATTERN
Encirclement turns a place’s boundary into a trap by closing its approaches and exits.
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,THE THREAD
The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.The same Hebrew terms, חנה (ḥanah, encamp) and סָבִיב (saviv, around), form both perimeters. Here the LORD’s messenger encamps around those in awe and delivers them; in Kings, a conquering army makes the ring a siege.
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