What Does 2 Kings 7:2 Mean in the King James?
Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
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 “thing” he calls impossible is the very “word” already spoken over Samaria.
THE MEANING
You can be someone others rely on and still mistake present limits for the limits of what can happen. Seeing promised provision become real does not, by itself, mean sharing in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If I cannot see how provision could arrive, then no provision is possible.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, affair, or thing.
“thing” in this verse is davar. In verse 1, the LORD’s promise is called a davar; here, the official asks whether this davar can be. The same Hebrew word holds “word” and “matter” together, placing the spoken promise and its possible fulfillment on the same linguistic ground.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter, affair, or thing.
דָּבָר
The noun used for the LORD’s “word” in verse 1 is repeated as “this thing” in verse 2.
dibber: Spoke; to speak, a verb form from דבר.
דִּבֶּר
The speaking form shares the root of the matter being questioned: the official challenges whether what is spoken can come to pass.
נִשְׁעָן
nish’an
GROWS FROM
שׁען
To lean on, rest upon, or rely on.
The verse says the king leaned on this official, making reliance part of his very description. That image sits beside his disbelief: someone cast as another’s support cannot imagine support arriving through the LORD’s promise.
ALSO GROWS
mish’en: Support or stay.
מִשְׁעֵן
This branch names what someone leans on, echoing the official’s place as a support for the king.
yishsha’en: He will lean on or rely on.
יִשָּׁעֵן
The same root carries the act of relying, which sharpens the contrast between the king’s reliance on the official and the official’s dismissal of the promise.
THE PATTERN
Dismissal cannot cancel promised provision, though the dismissive hearer may remain outside its enjoyment.
Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.THE THREAD
Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.“Word of the LORD” is davar, the same word rendered “thing” in the official’s question one verse later. The promise gives a time and concrete measures of food; the next verse asks whether that very davar can be.
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