What Does 2 Samuel 11:18 Mean in the King James?
Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;
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
Hebrew calls the war’s “things” its words: the conflict reaches David as a report carried outward.
THE MEANING
What happens beyond your sight becomes present through a report that reaches you; here, the full account of the war travels from Joab to David. News moves outward, then becomes known through the words that carry it.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
wayyišlaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
to send forth, send away, or release
“sent” in this verse is wayyišlaḥ. The root carries both sending and release: Joab sets the report in motion away from himself and toward David. The verse shows news as something carried outward until it reaches its hearer.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: envoy; one who is sent
שָׁלִיחַ
The envoy makes visible the root’s movement: a sender’s purpose travels through someone sent onward.
shilluaḥ: sending away; dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch preserves the root’s sense of release, the outward movement that begins with Joab’s message.
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing
The “things” concerning the war are literally its divrei, its words or matters. English makes the report’s content sound like objects, while Hebrew keeps it within the field of speech.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word; matter; thing
דָּבָר
This noun holds “word” and “thing” together, revealing that the war’s matters arrive as spoken report.
dibber: to speak
דִּבֵּר
The verb shares the same root, linking the matters being reported to the act of telling them.
THE PATTERN
A message carries what happens in one place beyond it, making the event present to a distant hearer.
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.So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.“Things” here is דִּבְרֵי (divrei), from the same root דבר (davar) as Isaiah’s “word.” Isaiah widens the connection: what is sent forth as speech carries the sender’s purpose to where it is received.
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