What Does 2 Samuel 13:19 Mean in the King James?
And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.
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 Hebrew verb for tearing Tamar’s garment also names the heart’s rupture, joining the visible tear to the grief within.
THE MEANING
This verse lets you see grief in full view: ash on the head, a torn garment, a hand laid on the head, and crying that continues. Tamar’s distress fills the scene without being explained away or hurried toward resolution.
THE ROOT
וַתִּקְרַע
vattiqraʿ
GROWS FROM
קרע
to tear or rend
English “rent” names the clothing action, but this root also describes the heart being rent. The same word holds outward tearing and inward rupture together, making the torn garment a visible witness to grief.
ALSO GROWS
qeraʿ: A tear, rent, or split
קֶרַע
A garment can bear a visible tear; here the cloth records Tamar’s grief.
qaraʿ: To tear or rend inwardly
קָרַע
Joel 2:13 uses the same verb for the heart, showing that this word reaches inward rupture as well as torn fabric.
תָּמָר
tamar
GROWS FROM
תמר
date palm or palm tree
Tamar’s name carries the image of a palm tree, a meaning hidden when English leaves it as a proper name. That name stands beside the ashes and torn garment without diminishing the grief the verse shows.
ALSO GROWS
tamar: A date palm; also Tamar’s name
תָּמָר
The name preserves a plant image that the English name alone does not reveal.
tomer: A palm tree
תֹּמֶר
This related form makes the name’s palm-tree sense visible in Hebrew.
THE PATTERN
Grief takes visible and audible form, becoming witness shared with others.
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.THE THREAD
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.Tamar’s verb for tearing her garment comes from the same Hebrew root as Joel’s “rend your heart.” The shared word holds garment and heart in one field of tearing, so the visible rupture in Tamar’s clothing echoes inward rupture without canceling what the garment shows.
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