What Does 2 Kings 6:12 Mean in the King James?
And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
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
A spoken word can cross the walls of the room where it was meant to stay hidden.
THE MEANING
Your private words are not beyond all knowing: the verse places even words spoken in a bedchamber within reach of prophetic disclosure. The room can hide its speaker from sight without making the spoken word unknowable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that privacy makes spoken words absolutely unknowable dissolves here.
THE ROOT
יַגִּיד
yaggid
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
Make known, declare, bring forward into view.
“telleth” in this verse is yaggid. The verb carries the sense of bringing something into view. The verse’s movement is from words kept in a private chamber to words made known beyond it.
ALSO GROWS
nagad: Declare, report, or make known.
נָגַד
It is the verbal form behind the servant’s claim that Elisha tells what the king says in private.
neged: Before, in front of, or opposite.
נֶגֶד
This related word evokes what is brought into view, echoing the passage’s movement from concealment to disclosure.
הַדְּבָרִים
ha-devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; a word or matter spoken of.
The same root holds both speech and matter: the king’s words are also the substance of what is being reported. English can make “words” sound like mere sound, while the Hebrew root holds the saying and its subject together.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The king’s words are not only sounds uttered in a room; they are matters that can be made known.
dibber: Spoke or spoke about.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form shares the root with the words Elisha reports, joining the act of speaking to what is spoken.
הַנָּבִיא
hannavi
GROWS FROM
נבא
n-b-ʾ
Prophesy, announce, or speak a prophetic message.
“prophet” in this verse is hannavi. The title names Elisha by the kind of speech he carries: prophetic announcement. Amos uses the same root for “prophets” when describing the LORD revealing a secret to them, linking prophetic speech with what is disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
navi: A prophet, one who speaks a prophetic message.
נָבִיא
This is the noun used to identify Elisha in the verse.
nibba: Prophesied or spoke prophetically.
נִבָּא
This verbal form makes explicit the link between the prophet and the act of prophetic speaking.
THE PATTERN
What is concealed from human sight remains within reach of divine disclosure.
He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.THE THREAD
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.Elisha is called הַנָּבִיא (hannavi, “the prophet”); Amos uses נְבִיאִים (nevi’im, “prophets”), from the same root נבא (n-b-ʾ, “prophesy” or “announce prophetically”). The shared root opens the verse as prophetic disclosure: a hidden matter reaches speech through the prophet.
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