What Does 2 Samuel 14:3 Mean in the King James?
And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.
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 command to speak and the words Joab places in her mouth share one Hebrew root: the verse shows a voice being authored before it is voiced.
THE MEANING
A voice can carry words shaped and placed there by someone else; speaking in the first person does not prove first-person authorship. The words pass through the speaker’s mouth while serving another person’s design.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that words spoken in someone’s own voice must originate with them.
THE ROOT
דִּבַּרְתְּ
dibbart
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; word or matter.
“speak / words” in this verse is dibbart. The same root gives the verse both the act of speaking and the words themselves, binding the voiced act to its content. Joab’s words become the very speech she is told to deliver.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, affair, or thing.
דָּבָר
The word can name both what is said and the matter being conveyed.
dibber: To speak or declare.
דִּבֵּר
This is the speaking verb in the instruction to her, from the same root as the words Joab places in her mouth.
וַיָּשֶׂם
wayyāśem
GROWS FROM
שים
To put, set, or place.
“put” in this verse is wayyāśem. The verse describes speech as something deliberately placed in a mouth. The image makes the words’ source part of what the sentence reveals.
ALSO GROWS
lasim: To put, set, or place.
לָשִׂים
The verb’s basic sense makes the mouth the location where the words are set.
sam: He placed or set.
שָׂם
This form shares the root of Joab’s action: he positions the words there before she speaks.
THE PATTERN
Speech can be placed in a mouth before it is spoken, making the source of a voice part of its meaning.
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 the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.THE THREAD
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.This verse reuses the same Hebrew roots for speaking (דבר, d-b-r) and placing (שים, s-y-m), with words set in another person’s mouth. That shared wording makes the source of the speech central to how the current verse reads.
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