What Does 2 Samuel 15:19 Mean in the King James?
Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile.
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 stranger’s loyalty remains a choice: the king recognizes Ittai’s exile without making his displacement decide where he belongs.
THE MEANING
Being named a stranger or exile does not make your place or loyalty inevitable. The king’s invitation makes return possible without turning Ittai’s displacement into a debt of allegiance. The verse speaks into the moment when someone else’s account of your origin seems to choose your next step for you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An outsider must prove belonging by following the powerful into danger.
THE ROOT
נָכְרִי
nokhri
GROWS FROM
נכר
Recognize or mark as different; in this word family, foreign or strange.
נָכְרִי marks someone as recognized as different, not simply as a visitor. The same consonants appear in a word for disowning or acting like a stranger, showing how being treated as an outsider can also be an act of withheld recognition.
ALSO GROWS
nekar: Foreignness or a foreign land.
נֵכָר
The shared form locates Ittai’s status in a recognized difference of origin.
hitnaker: To disown or act as if one does not recognize someone.
הִתְנַכֵּר
This branch exposes the relational force behind being marked as a stranger: recognition can be withheld.
גֹּלֶה
goleh
GROWS FROM
גלה
Go into exile or be removed from one’s place; related forms also name the act of sending someone away.
גֹּלֶה names a displaced person, not merely a visitor from elsewhere. The related forms name both exile as a condition and the act of sending away, keeping the person and the force of displacement in view.
ALSO GROWS
golah: Exile, or a community living in exile.
גּוֹלָה
The same consonants extend Ittai’s individual displacement to a shared condition.
higlah: He sent into exile or deported.
הִגְלָה
This form names the act behind the state of being exiled.
מְקוֹמֶךָ
meqomekha
GROWS FROM
קום
Rise, stand, or become established.
The word for “place” belongs to a family built around standing or being established. The invitation to return to “your place” can therefore carry the sense of returning to where one is grounded, as well as to a location.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This verb makes the root beneath “place” visible: a place is where someone can stand.
maqom: Place or location.
מָקוֹם
This is the noun form in the same consonantal family as Ittai’s “your place.”
THE PATTERN
An origin marked as foreign does not close the possibility of chosen belonging.
Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;THE THREAD
And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.The next verse gives Ittai’s answer: he chooses the king’s company in either death or life. This turns the offered return into a real choice, showing that displacement can be named without dictating allegiance.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us