What Does 2 Kings 4:14 Mean in the King James?
And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.
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
Before she asks for anything, Gehazi names the absence that becomes the very subject of the answer: a child.
THE MEANING
A lack can be seen before you name it: here, no child and an old husband mark the future as closed from a human vantage. The verse holds that limit plainly. The next verse answers the named absence with a promise of a son.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that only a spoken request can make a need visible is undone: Gehazi names what she has not asked for.
THE ROOT
בֵּן
ben
GROWS FROM
בנה
banah
build, build up
Ben, “son,” belongs to the build-family of banah, “to build”: a child is heard here within the image of a household being built and continued. “No child” names not only an absence, but the absence of one who would carry the household forward, and the next verse makes that same word, ben, the promise.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build, build up
בָּנָה
Its shared root lets “no child” carry the additional sense of a household with no one to build it forward.
binyan: building, structure
בִּנְיָן
This branch makes the household dimension of ben visible: the verse names a gap in the structure and continuation of a family.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names childlessness as a humanly closed horizon before the story opens a future beyond it.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.THE THREAD
And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.Gehazi names “no child” with ben; Elisha answers with the same Hebrew word, ben, now as a promise. The root link turns the named absence into the exact word of the answer.
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