What Does 2 Kings 7:9 Mean in the King James?
Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.
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 root of “good tidings” also names the act of announcing them, so the news reaches its purpose as it leaves silence and is told.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the reader at the instant when good news is found but not yet shared: silence keeps the discovery with its finders, while telling carries it into the king’s household. Speaking is how the news reaches those still outside its relief.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that silence is harmless when others lack what you have found dissolves here: withholding the news leaves them exposed to what it could have changed.
THE ROOT
בְּשׂוֹרָה
besorah
GROWS FROM
בשר
announce good news
“Good tidings” belongs to the same root as the verb for announcing and the word for a bearer of news. The verse’s movement is not just from finding something good to possessing it; the news takes its shape as it is carried outward.
ALSO GROWS
bisser: announce good news
בִּשֵּׂר
The verb shares the root of “good tidings”: the news and the act of announcing it grow from the same seed.
mevaser: bearer of good news
מְבַשֵּׂר
The messenger is named by the same root as the news itself, joining its content to the one who carries it.
וְנָגִידָה
ve-nagidah
GROWS FROM
נגד
be in front; declare or make known
“tell” in this verse is ve-nagidah. The verb for telling shares its root with a word for a leader or one set before others. Here, telling brings the news before the king’s household, giving it a recipient beyond the finders.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: declare, make known
הִגִּיד
This form makes the root’s sense of bringing something into view explicit.
nagid: leader; one set before others
נָגִיד
This related form echoes the root’s sense of being in front, as the news is set before those who need to hear it.
THE PATTERN
Good news moves from discovery toward others through the act of making it known.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.THE THREAD
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!Isaiah’s “bringeth good tidings” uses the same Hebrew root, בשר, as the “good tidings” in this verse. There, the messenger’s feet carry the announcement; here, the finders decide to carry it to the king’s household.
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