What Does 2 Kings 8:13 Mean in the King James?
And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.
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 verse makes “great” mean scale, not goodness: the predicted violence is met with the announcement that its agent will be king.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you with a blunt pairing: the “great thing” follows a forecast of violence, and Elisha names kingship as the future that contains it. “Great” marks scale, not goodness; the royal title does not erase the harm that precedes it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that calling oneself a servant or a dog means one is incapable of power: Hazael receives the future kingship immediately after that self-description.
THE ROOT
גָּדוֹל
gādōl
GROWS FROM
גדל
g-d-l
Grow, become great; by extension, be or make great.
The root גדל ties “great” to growth or magnitude, not automatically to moral excellence. Because Hazael uses it after hearing a forecast of extreme violence, the word can measure the act’s scale without praising it.
ALSO GROWS
gādal: To grow, become great
גָּדַל
This verbal form keeps “great” tied to increase in scale, so the phrase can name magnitude without approval.
gedullāh: Greatness, grandeur
גְּדֻלָּה
This noun shares the root גדל and lets grandeur echo the announced kingship, while the verse makes clear that grandeur and goodness are not the same.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes authority visible through what its power does to the people beneath it.
And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.THE THREAD
And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.The Hebrew מֶלֶךְ (melekh, “king”) here and וַיִּמְלֹךְ (vayyimlōkh, “he reigned”) in the next verse share the root מלך (m-l-k, “to reign or be king”), turning the title into an action. The next verse shows Hazael spread the water-dipped cloth over Ben-hadad’s face until he dies; the violence beside Elisha’s prophecy takes immediate form.
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