What Does 2 Kings 6:18 Mean in the King James?
And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
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 pursuers are blinded alive and led by Elisha, whose name carries the sense “God delivers”, so deliverance here passes through a real, disabling blow.
THE MEANING
Here, sight is not control: those who arrive with force become dependent on the one they seek. Elisha’s plea brings an actual disabling blow, but it does not end in their deaths; they are led into Samaria, where their sight is restored and they are fed. The verse holds deliverance and violence in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Here, losing sight does not mean abandonment or destruction: the blinded men remain alive, are redirected, and regain sight.
THE ROOT
אֱלִישָׁע
ʾĔlîšāʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver, bring out.
Elisha’s name joins “God” with a form of yasha, carrying the sense “God delivers.” In the surrounding scene, that deliverance includes the uncomfortable reality of a blinding strike before the men are led away alive.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuʿah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the outcome carried within the root of Elisha’s name.
môšîaʿ: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form makes the root’s action personal: one who brings others out.
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; word, matter, thing.
Dāḇār can name both a spoken word and a matter or thing. The verse says the striking happens “according to the word of Elisha,” holding his utterance and the event that follows within the same word family.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: He spoke, declared
דִּבֵּר
The verb and the noun share a root, linking Elisha’s speaking to the word named in the verse.
devarim: Words, matters, things
דְּבָרִים
This plural form preserves the root’s reach from speech to matters or things.
הַכֵּה
hakkēh
GROWS FROM
נכה
Strike, smite.
“smite” in this verse is hakkēh. The same root appears first in Elisha’s request and then in the LORD’s action. Hebrew repeats the strike across plea and fulfillment, keeping the violence explicit rather than hiding it inside the word blindness.
ALSO GROWS
wayyakkēm: And he struck them
וַיַּכֵּם
This form repeats the root as the action carried out in response to Elisha’s plea.
makkāh: Blow, wound, plague
מַכָּה
This noun carries the same root’s sense of an imposed blow.
THE PATTERN
Sight can be closed and reopened by God, redirecting people and revealing what they could not perceive.
And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.The prayer here closes the men’s eyes; in this verse, Elisha asks the LORD to open them, and their restored sight reveals they stand inside Samaria. Their blindness is a temporary restraint that redirects them alive, rather than their final condition.
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