What Does 2 Kings 4:7 Mean in the King James?
Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
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 oil’s measure is not only the debt it clears, but the lives its remainder sustains.
THE MEANING
This verse holds the whole household in view: the debt is paid, and what remains sustains life for the mother and her children. Provision includes both settling what is owed and what carries them afterward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once an obligation is settled, whatever remains is negligible; here, the remainder is the means by which the household lives.
THE ROOT
בַּנּוֹתָר
ba-notar
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
Remain over, be left, be more.
“rest” in this verse is ba-notar. The Hebrew word points to what remains after the debt is paid, while its root also carries the sense of more and advantage. The remainder is not incidental: the verse names it as the provision that continues life for the household.
ALSO GROWS
yeter: Remainder; what is left over.
יֶתֶר
It names what is still present after the immediate need has been met.
yoter: More; additional.
יוֹתֵר
It shows how the same root can describe what exceeds what was first needed.
yitron: Advantage; gain.
יִתְרוֹן
It connects what remains with the value or benefit that carries forward.
תִּחְיִי
tichyi
GROWS FROM
חיה
ch-y-h
Live, be alive.
“live” in this verse is tichyi. The verse directly links the remainder with the mother and her children living. Related forms name life itself and living beings, making the purpose of what remains concrete: it sustains lives, not simply a balance on an account.
ALSO GROWS
chay: Alive; living.
חַי
It describes the living state that the remaining provision supports.
chayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
It makes explicit the life contained in the verb translated “live.”
chayyah: Living creature.
חַיָּה
It extends the root from being alive to the beings whose lives are sustained.
THE PATTERN
Provision is shown both in needs being met and in a remainder that carries life forward.
And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him, and said, Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the LORD hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.THE THREAD
And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.The word translated “left” comes from the same root יתר (y-t-r) as “the rest” in 2 Kings 4:7. Here the remainder follows a meal; there, it supports a mother and her children after a debt is paid.
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