What Does 2 Kings 6:4 Mean in the King James?

So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.

2 Kings 6:4 · KJV

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 place-name itself carries motion: they go to the Jordan, the descender, where trees are cut into material for a dwelling.

THE MEANING

A place to dwell is made through shared, physical work at the source of its material. The one who goes with the workers is present at the site, where trees become building material. Yarden echoes yarad, “to descend,” so even the destination holds movement.

THE ROOT

יַרְדֵּן

Yarden

GROWS FROM

ירד

To descend, go down.

In English, Jordan is a place-name; its Hebrew form echoes ⁨ירד⁩, “to descend.” The river’s name carries the same movement made explicit when Naaman later goes down into its waters.

ALSO GROWS

yarad: To go down, descend.

יָרַד

This is the verb whose sound and sense form the river’s name; in 2 Kings 5:14 it describes Naaman going down into the Jordan.

yeridah: Descent, going down.

יְרִידָה

This noun preserves the root’s movement as a downward passage, revealing motion within what English reads as a fixed location.

THE PATTERN

A shared dwelling takes shape through joined labor and material prepared for building.

Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.

2 Kings 6:2 · KJVEach worker contributes a beam, and the group makes a place where they can dwell.

Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.

1 Kings 5:6 · KJVTrees are hewn for building, with the work shared across groups of laborers.

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:9 · KJVBuilding is pictured as shared labor, with the people themselves described as the structure taking shape.

THE THREAD

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

2 Kings 5:14 · KJV

Jordan’s name echoes ⁨ירד⁩, “to descend,” and this verse makes that root audible in “went he down.” Here descent into the Jordan’s waters is followed by cleansing; in 2 Kings 6:4, the same descending river is where the shared work of cutting wood happens.

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