What Does 2 Kings 3:6 Mean in the King James?
And king Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, and numbered all Israel.
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 for “numbered” also means to muster or attend to: Jehoram’s count organizes Israel as a people ready for his action.
THE MEANING
The count gathers all Israel into the king’s field of action and makes the people legible as a force. Numbering here is attention joined to power: the counted are available for the purpose governing them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A census is only a neutral total; here the count gathers Israel as a force for the king’s purpose.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְקֹד
vayifqod from paqad
GROWS FROM
פקד
To attend to, call to account, muster, or appoint.
“numbered” in this verse is vayifqod from paqad. English makes this sound like arithmetic alone, but פקד (paqad, attend to or muster) spans counting, appointing, and visiting, bringing someone or something under notice and responsibility. Here the king’s attention gathers Israel into a force; the root’s broader sense does not make that power benevolent.
ALSO GROWS
mifqad: Muster, numbering, or appointed place.
מִפְקָד
This noun makes the move from a count to an organized muster visible.
paqīd: Officer or overseer.
פָּקִיד
An officer is placed in charge, showing how the same root links counting with oversight.
THE PATTERN
A count brings people or details within someone’s field of action, whether for organized deployment or attentive regard.
From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.THE THREAD
Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:Exodus uses the same פקד (paqad, attend to or visit) root in “I have surely visited you.” The shared root joins numbering with visitation: both bring a people into active notice, though the purposes of that attention differ.
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