What Does 2 Samuel 15:20 Mean in the King James?
Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee.
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 Hebrew uses one root for both “return” and “take back,” so the departure itself carries the possibility of bringing others back with you.
THE MEANING
A bond does not require you to follow another person into uncertainty. Returning can still carry care for others with you, while faithful love and truth remain beside you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must follow someone into every uncertain road or your loyalty is false.
THE ROOT
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
שׁ־וּ־ב
Turn back, return; in a causative form, bring back or restore.
“return / take back” in this verse is shuv. The verse uses this root twice: first as “return,” then as “take back.” What sounds like a dismissal also carries a restoring movement: the one who returns can bring others back with him.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun names return as a turning back, the same movement expressed in the verse’s command.
heshiv: cause to return, bring back
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form makes the shared root visible in “take back thy brethren.”
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
Faithful, steadfast love expressed through kindness and loyalty.
The word carries more than a passing feeling of mercy: it is love that remains loyal. The verse sends this faithful love with the person who turns back, so separation does not have to erase the bond.
ALSO GROWS
chasid: faithful, devoted person
חָסִיד
This word describes someone characterized by the kind of faithfulness named by chesed.
hitchassed: show kindness, act faithfully
הִתְחַסֵּד
This verbal form shows the root as enacted kindness, not only a quality someone possesses.
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ן
Be firm, steady, reliable.
Truth here carries the sense of what is firm and dependable. Its root also forms the language of trust and “Amen,” linking truth with something a person can lean their full weight on.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: trust, steadiness, reliability
אֱמוּנָה
This related word brings out the dependable quality carried by emet.
amen: firm, truly; so be it
אָמֵן
Amen shares the root’s sense of firmness, echoing truth as something reliable.
THE PATTERN
Faithful love and truth travel together as a steady presence along a person’s path.
All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.Psalm 25:10 uses the same Hebrew pair, חֶסֶד (chesed, faithful love) and אֱמֶת (emet, truth). There, they mark the paths of the LORD; here, they accompany someone turning back.
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