What Does 2 Samuel 14:18 Mean in the King James?

Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

2 Samuel 14:18 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

In Hebrew, the king asks about a *davar* (“thing”) and the woman invites him to *yedabber* (“speak”): the matter and its telling share a root.

THE MEANING

A question can bring a hidden matter toward speech, and an answer can open space for its telling. The verse holds the instant of disclosure: the matter being sought and the act of speaking it meet in one root.

THE ROOT

דָּבָר

dāḇār

GROWS FROM

דבר

d-b-r

To speak; the same root also names a word, matter, or thing.

“thing / speak” in this verse is dāḇār. Hebrew uses one root for the matter the king asks about and the act of speaking the woman invites. English separates “thing” from “speak,” concealing how closely the verse joins what is hidden with its telling.

ALSO GROWS

dāḇār: Word; matter; thing.

דָּבָר

The king asks about a davar, the matter he wants the woman not to conceal.

yedabbēr: He speaks; let him speak.

יְדַבֵּר

The woman answers by inviting the king to speak, using the same root as the matter he asks about.

THE PATTERN

What is held back can be faced when it is brought into speech.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Psalm 32:5 · KJVThe speaker brings what was hidden into the open through acknowledgment and speech.

Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

John 4:29 · KJVA woman’s spoken account brings what she has lived through into the open.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9 · KJVSpeaking what is wrong makes it addressable and opens the way to release.

THE THREAD

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Psalm 33:6 · KJV

The “word” here is ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (dāḇār, word), from the same root as the “thing” in the king’s question. The shared root joins matter and speech: a thing can be held in a word and brought forward through speaking.

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