What Does 2 Samuel 13:31 Mean in the King James?
Then the king arose, and tare his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent.
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 repeats one root for the king’s tearing and the servants’ torn clothes, making his grief audible across the whole scene.
THE MEANING
When devastating news reaches you, grief can rise through the body, tear the clothing, and bring the body down to earth. The rupture becomes shared as those beside you wear torn garments too. The verse leaves grief bodily and public.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that grief must remain composed and private: the king’s body and the servants’ clothing make it visible.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרַע
vayyiqraʿ
GROWS FROM
קרע
to tear, rend, split open
“tare / rent” in this verse is vayyiqraʿ. The verse uses this root first for the king’s act (וַיִּקְרַע, vayyiqraʿ: “he tore”) and again for the servants’ torn condition (קְרֻעִים, qeruʿim: “torn”). English gives two forms, “tare” and “rent,” while Hebrew makes one rupture audible across the scene: his grief is echoed in the garments around him.
ALSO GROWS
qeraʿ: a tear or rent
קֶרַע
The noun names the opening left by tearing, making the king’s grief legible in the damaged garment.
qeruʿim: torn, rent
קְרֻעִים
This is the same root describing the servants’ clothes, extending the king’s rupture through the people standing beside him.
THE PATTERN
When words cannot contain a rupture, torn clothing gives the response a visible, public form.
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out,THE THREAD
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.The same Hebrew root, קרע (qaraʿ, to tear), describes Jacob tearing his garment when he believes Joseph is dead and the torn condition of the servants’ garments here. In both scenes, clothing becomes the visible surface of grief too large to stay inward.
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