What Does 2 Samuel 14:19 Mean in the King James?
And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid:
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
A mouth can carry one person’s words while another person’s hand directs them.
THE MEANING
The king detects Joab’s hand behind the woman’s answer, and she names Joab as the source who placed the words in her mouth. The voice and the authorship are distinct: speech can sound like one person’s while carrying another’s intent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Hearing words from someone’s mouth does not prove that the words originate with them.
THE ROOT
דִּבֶּר
dibbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; word or matter.
“spoken / words” in this verse is dibbēr. The king’s “spoken” words and Joab’s “words” share the same root, דבר (d-b-r). Hebrew holds speech and its content in one family: what is spoken is the very matter being placed in the woman’s mouth.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The king’s speech belongs to the same root as the words Joab supplies; both are speech with an identifiable source.
dābār: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
The English separates speaking from “words,” while this shared root links the utterance to the matter carried through the woman’s mouth.
THE PATTERN
Words placed in a mouth can disclose the will of the one who set them there.
And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.THE THREAD
Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.Jeremiah uses the same root, דבר (d-b-r), for the words placed in the mouth, closely echoing this verse’s wording. Here the woman names Joab as their source; Jeremiah names the LORD, showing that a mouth alone does not reveal whose words it carries.
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