What Does 2 Samuel 13:27 Mean in the King James?
But Absalom pressed him, that he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him.
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
Under “pressed” is the image of breaking through a boundary: the request pushes past resistance.
THE MEANING
Pressure can turn a refusal into passage, sending others into consequences they did not choose. The verse holds coercion and permission together: one person presses, and the king sends the sons along. Permission records that passage was granted; it does not tell us whether the pressure was honest or the path safe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A yes produced by pressure is not proof that the request was harmless or freely welcomed.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְרָץ
vayyifrats
GROWS FROM
פרץ
pāraṣ
Break through, burst forth, or make a breach.
“pressed” in this verse is vayyifrats. The pressure here is pictured as a breach, not merely repeated speech: someone pushes across a boundary. This root can name a breach, a forceful breaker, or a breakthrough; the word itself does not say whether the opening is liberation or violation.
ALSO GROWS
perets: Breach; an opening made by breaking through.
פֶּרֶץ
This is the noun in the same root family, making the boundary-breaking image inside “pressed” visible.
pārîts: A violent or destructive breaker.
פָּרִיץ
This branch shows how breaking through can carry the force of intrusion, not just the neutral fact of making an opening.
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayyishlach
GROWS FROM
שלח
shālaḥ
Send forth, release, or let go.
The verb behind “let … go with him” is shalach, a sending outward. It names movement but does not guarantee consent or safety: here, the sending follows pressure, placing the king’s sons in the path that has just been opened.
ALSO GROWS
shaliaḥ: One sent; a messenger.
שָׁלִיחַ
A messenger carries a sending outward; here, the people sent with Absalom are likewise moved into another person’s sphere.
Shiloach: “Sent,” the name associated with the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
In John 9:7, sent water is connected with restored sight; the same sending root can carry healing in one passage and expose people to danger in another.
THE PATTERN
A breach opens a passage, and what passes through it reveals whether the opening brings harm, repair, or access.
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.THE THREAD
The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.The same root that marks Absalom pressing through David’s resistance describes a breaker opening a passage for people to go out. The root itself does not bless the breach; what matters is who passes through and where the opening leads.
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