What Does 2 Samuel 14:13 Mean in the King James?
And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished.
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
Being driven away does not erase belonging: the verse calls the king’s refusal to bring the banished back a matter of guilt.
THE MEANING
You can name someone as belonging to God and still leave them outside. The verse exposes that split: when the king does not bring back the one who has been driven away, his refusal is called guilty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Banishment does not cancel belonging or make a person beyond return.
THE ROOT
נִדָּחוֹ
niddāḥô
GROWS FROM
נדח
n-d-ḥ
to thrust away, drive away
“banished” in this verse is niddāḥô. The word describes someone as driven away, keeping the act of exclusion visible inside the description of the person. The verse still names this displaced person as belonging to God’s people, so being driven away has not erased that claim.
ALSO GROWS
nāḏaḥ: to drive away, thrust aside
נָדַח
The verb shows that banishment is something done to a person, not the whole of who that person is.
nidḥê: outcasts, people driven away
נִדְחֵי
The same word family names Israel’s outcasts as people who can be gathered together.
הָשִׁיב
hāshîv
GROWS FROM
שוב
sh-w-b
to turn back, return
“fetch home again” in this verse is hāshîv. The Hebrew verb has the king cause a return: he is to turn the banishment back. The verse presents restoration as more than a change of location; it is the reversal of being driven away.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: to return, turn back
שׁוּב
This basic form holds the idea of turning back that underlies the king’s act of bringing someone home.
hēshîv: to bring back, restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form makes the king responsible for enabling the return, rather than merely waiting for it.
כְּאָשֵׁם
ke’āshēm
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
to incur guilt, be liable
“faulty” in this verse is ke’āshēm. The woman calls the king culpable for not bringing back the banished; the word carries the weight of liability, not just a vague flaw. The same root also names guilt and the offering associated with it.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshēm: guilty, liable
אָשֵׁם
This form makes clear that the charge falls on the one responsible for the refusal.
ʾāshām: guilt; also, a guilt offering
אָשָׁם
The related noun keeps culpability connected to accountability for what has been done.
THE PATTERN
Being driven away does not erase belonging; the scattered can still be gathered and brought back.
If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.THE THREAD
I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.The phrase “that which was driven away” uses the same root, נדח (n-d-ḥ), meaning “to drive away,” as “banished” here. The shared root makes the connection precise: the one named by displacement is the one sought and brought back.
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