What Does 2 Kings 6:22 Mean in the King James?
And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.
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 men taken by sword are answered with bread and water, turning victory into a meal and a way home.
THE MEANING
You hold captured enemies, and the verse sets the power to strike beside the act of placing bread and water before them. They eat, drink, and return to their master; the violence stops here without their enmity being erased. The meal carries them out of your hands alive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A captive is not automatically a target for a final blow: this verse puts food and water before the captured men and sends them home.
THE ROOT
לֶחֶם
lechem
GROWS FROM
ל־ח־ם
L-Ḥ-M
The consonants in לֶחֶם name bread; the same consonants also appear in לָחַם, to fight, and מִלְחָמָה, battle.
The consonants of לֶחֶם (lechem, bread) echo לָחַם (lacham, to fight), shifting the scene from sword and bow to a meal. The food answers the conflict without pretending the men were never captives or enemies.
ALSO GROWS
lacham: to fight
לָחַם
Its consonants echo in the bread placed before the armed captives, setting provision beside combat.
milḥamah: battle, warfare
מִלְחָמָה
The battle word shares the consonant frame, making the meal’s contrast with the weapons especially sharp.
שָׁבִיתָ
shavita
GROWS FROM
ש־ב־ה
sh-v-h
To take captive, to carry away as a captive.
“taken captive” in this verse is shavita. The Hebrew makes their status explicit: these men are already captives before the question about striking them. The turn is from holding them by force to feeding them and letting them return to their master.
ALSO GROWS
shevi: captivity
שְׁבִי
This noun names the condition the men are already in when the verse rejects striking them.
shavui: captive
שָׁבוּי
This form names a person held captive, bringing the verse’s question into focus: their helplessness does not require another blow.
THE PATTERN
When an enemy is within reach, the text places concrete provision where retaliation could go.
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;THE THREAD
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:Proverbs gives the same pair of provisions, bread and water, to an enemy. The shared Hebrew word לֶחֶם (lechem, bread) lets the meal in 2 Kings echo as a recurring answer to hostility.
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