What Does 2 Kings 4:9 Mean in the King James?
And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.
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
Perception here is knowing born from repeated encounter: the man’s nature becomes legible because he keeps passing by.
THE MEANING
You recognize a presence through what repeated nearness makes known. Here, perception is a knowing formed through encounter: the man is set apart to God, and his continual passing makes that nature legible.
THE ROOT
יָדַעְתִּי
yādaʿtî
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
The Hebrew behind “I perceive” is yada, a knowing that comes through encounter rather than information alone. Her recognition has taken shape as this man passes among them continually.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know, recognize, or perceive.
יָדַע
This verb is the seed of her “I perceive”: she recognizes what his repeated presence reveals.
daʿat: Knowledge or knowing.
דַּעַת
This noun shares the root and shows that knowing is the state formed by recognition and encounter.
קָדוֹשׁ
qādôsh
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־ש
q-d-sh
To set apart, mark as distinct.
“Holy” carries the sense of being set apart, distinct in nature. The passage joins her perception to that distinctness: she recognizes him as belonging to God.
ALSO GROWS
qōdeš: Set-apartness; a sacred domain.
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun shows that qadosh belongs to a family describing what is set apart for God.
qiddēsh: To set apart or dedicate.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb reveals the action contained in the description: being marked out as distinct.
THE PATTERN
Knowing the divine is recognition of nature formed through encounter and sustained nearness.
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.THE THREAD
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.The Hebrew verb for “know” here is yada (יָדַע, yādaʿ, to know or perceive through encounter), the same root behind “I perceive.” Its repetition alongside continued pursuit opens this verse’s recognition into an ongoing knowing, pictured as the LORD coming like rain.
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