What Does 2 Samuel 1:20 Mean in the King James?

Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

2 Samuel 1:20 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

A defeat has a second life: once announced, it can become glad tidings in the streets of those who rejoice over you.

THE MEANING

Your loss does not arrive as the same news to every hearer. In the mouths of those who oppose you, it can become glad tidings and a reason to exult. The verse holds the wound of defeat together with the added wound of hearing it celebrated in public.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that defeat ends when the event ends: the telling can carry the loss into an enemy’s celebration.

THE ROOT

תְּבַשְּׂרוּ

tevaseru

GROWS FROM

בשר

b-ś-r

Announce or bring news, often glad tidings.

English “publish” sounds like neutral circulation; this Hebrew verb often carries the sense of bringing glad tidings. Israel’s loss is not merely news in Philistine streets, it is news they can receive as good.

ALSO GROWS

besorah: Tidings, often good news.

בְּשׂוֹרָה

The report of defeat can arrive to its hearers as good news.

mevaser: A herald or bearer of news.

מְבַשֵּׂר

The word evokes a messenger carrying news to others, making the report’s audience part of its force.

תִּשְׂמַחְנָה

tismaḥnah

GROWS FROM

שמח

ś-m-ḥ

Be glad, rejoice.

“rejoice” in this verse is tismaḥnah. This root names the gladness of the hearers and, in other forms, the act of making glad. Here that gladness belongs to those who take Israel’s loss as their own cause for celebration.

ALSO GROWS

simḥah: Joy or gladness.

שִׂמְחָה

The root makes the Philistines’ response a joy rooted in another people’s defeat.

mesammeaḥ: One who gladdens or makes glad.

מְשַׂמֵּחַ

The related form highlights how an event can become the source of another person’s gladness.

THE PATTERN

Those opposed to a fallen witness can turn that fall into a public celebration.

Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

Judges 16:23 · KJVSamson’s defeat becomes the Philistines’ reason to gather and rejoice.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Psalm 137:3 · KJVThe captors demand that the wounded turn their grief into public entertainment.

And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

Revelation 11:10 · KJVThe earth’s inhabitants celebrate the death of the two witnesses and exchange gifts over their fall.

THE THREAD

And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people.

1 Samuel 31:9 · KJV

The Hebrew verb rendered “publish” in both verses comes from ⁨בשר⁩ (b-ś-r), meaning to announce or bring tidings. Here the Philistines send news of Saul’s death among their people, making David’s warning echo the very kind of public announcement he fears.

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