What Does 2 Samuel 10:14 Mean in the King James?
And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, then fled they also before Abishai, and entered into the city. So Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.
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
One army’s flight becomes the next army’s command: Ammon sees its allies flee and follows.
THE MEANING
Fear moves through sight: another force’s retreat can set your own body in motion before the danger reaches you. Ammon retreats into the city, while Joab returns to Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim), whose name carries the paired wholeness of שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness); the verse holds enclosure and return toward wholeness in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only a force directly defeated retreats. Here, seeing its allies flee is enough to turn Ammon back.
THE ROOT
נָסוּ
nāsû
GROWS FROM
נוּס
nûs
To flee or take flight.
“fled” in this verse is nāsû. Both armies’ flight uses the same root: the Syrians flee, then the Ammonites do too. The repeated root lets you hear the retreat pass from one force to the next.
ALSO GROWS
mənūsāh: Flight or escape.
מְנוּסָה
This noun makes the movement itself visible: Ammon’s flight follows the Syrians’.
mānôs: A place of escape or refuge.
מָנוֹס
Ammon’s flight ends inside a city, turning escape into enclosure.
וַיַּרְא
wayyarʾ
GROWS FROM
רָאָה
rāʾāh
To see, look, or perceive.
“saw” in this verse is wayyarʾ. The decisive turn begins with seeing: the retreat becomes visible, and then it spreads. Sight here carries the battle’s movement from the Syrians to Ammon.
ALSO GROWS
marʾeh: What is seen; an appearance or vision.
מַרְאֶה
The Syrians’ retreat becomes the appearance that shapes Ammon’s next move.
roʾeh: One who sees.
רֹאֶה
The verse draws attention to the one who witnesses the flight and responds to it.
וַיָּשָׁב
wayyāshov
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn back or return.
“returned” in this verse is wayyāshov. Joab’s return has a different root from the Ammonites’ flight. In a scene of retreat, this root marks a turn back toward Jerusalem rather than a flight into the city.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: A return or turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
It carries the root’s sense of a changed direction, as Joab turns away from the battle.
hēshīv: To bring or turn something back.
הֵשִׁיב
This branch underscores the root’s return movement, distinct from the Ammonites’ flight.
THE PATTERN
Perceived danger can set a body in flight before it is struck, and one retreat can shift the movement of others.
And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.THE THREAD
And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.The Hebrew verb for “fled” in both passages comes from נוּס (nûs), meaning to flee or take flight. In one, Ammon sees its allies flee; in the other, Israel sees Goliath and flees, the shared root links sight to a group’s sudden movement.
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