What Does 2 Samuel 14:11 Mean in the King James?
Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.
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 “revengers” are go’alei, the same kinship word used for redeemers, so the threat and the possibility of restoration rise from the same root.
THE MEANING
Her plea asks the king to keep a blood claim from becoming another killing by remembering the LORD as his authority. His oath answers with a bodily measure of total protection: not even one hair of her son will fall to the earth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A blood claim makes another death unavoidable.
THE ROOT
גֹּאֲלֵי
go’alei
GROWS FROM
גאל
ga’al
To act as a kinsman by reclaiming, recovering, or redeeming.
The word translated “revengers” comes from the same root as the kinsman who redeems or recovers what has been lost. Here kin exercise a claim through blood: the root holds restoration and retaliation within the same family role.
ALSO GROWS
go’el: A kinsman-redeemer; here, a blood avenger.
גֹּאֵל
It names the kin whose claim the woman asks the king to restrain.
ge’ullah: Redemption or recovery by a kinsman.
גְּאֻלָּה
It shows the restorative side of the same root that names the avengers.
יִזְכָּר
yizkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
zākar
To remember, recall, or bring to mind.
“remember” in this verse is yizkor. The plea asks the king to bring the LORD to mind as the measure of his ruling, not merely to recall a fact. This root also gives words for memorial and making remembrance, so remembering presses toward action.
ALSO GROWS
zikkārōn: A memorial or remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
It links remembering with keeping something present in view.
hizkir: To mention or bring something to remembrance.
הִזְכִּיר
It echoes the woman’s appeal to bring the LORD into the king’s present decision.
חַי
chai
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥayah
To live or remain alive.
The oath opens with “As the LORD liveth” before it promises that no hair will touch the earth. Life stands as the ground of the king’s promise against the threat of further bloodshed.
ALSO GROWS
chayah: To live or be alive.
חָיָה
It is the living action invoked in the oath.
chayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
It names what the oath protects when it promises that the son will not be destroyed.
THE PATTERN
Blood vengeance is restrained when the claim is brought under judgment rather than allowed to multiply into another killing.
And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.THE THREAD
If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.Leviticus uses go’el for the kin who restores what a family has lost; here the same root names the kin who seeks blood. The shared root holds both recovery and retaliation, making the woman’s plea a demand that kinship stop deepening the loss.
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