What Does 2 Kings 4:19 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.
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 first response to the child’s cry is not a diagnosis but a handoff into care.
THE MEANING
Your pain does not need a full explanation to be heard: the child’s repeated “My head, my head” is enough to move someone to carry him to his mother. The verse keeps the pain bodily and the care physical, while leaving the outcome open here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that pain must be fully explained before anyone can respond is undone by the child’s bare cry and the immediate response to carry him.
THE ROOT
שָׂאֵהוּ
sa'ehu
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear.
“Carry him” in this verse is sa'ehu. The command uses a verb of lifting and bearing: the answer to the child’s cry is another person physically taking him up. The same root can describe bearing a burden, so the scene holds care as something one person carries for another.
ALSO GROWS
massa: Burden, load.
מַשָּׂא
A burden is something lifted and borne; here, the child himself is the one being carried.
nose avon: Bearing crookedness; rendered “forgiving iniquity” in the KJV.
נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן
The same verb can describe bearing what weighs on another, keeping the idea of release connected to carrying.
THE PATTERN
When someone is overwhelmed by suffering, care takes the form of another bearing and bringing them.
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.THE THREAD
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.The command “carry him” uses נשא (nasa), the same Hebrew root translated “borne” in “he hath borne our griefs.” The shared root links this child being lifted into care with the image of one who bears another’s grief.
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