What Does 2 Samuel 15:25 Mean in the King James?
And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation:
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 root שׁוּב (shuv, return) names both sending the ark back and David’s hope of being brought back.
THE MEANING
Your own return can remain uncertain even while what is sacred goes back to its place. One Hebrew root binds those movements, while favor and renewed sight remain in the LORD’s hands. The verse holds hope without turning it into a guarantee.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Losing control of what is sacred means losing every possibility of returning to God.
THE ROOT
הָשֵׁב
hāshēv
GROWS FROM
שוב
To turn back or return; in causative forms, to bring someone or something back.
“Carry back” in this verse is hāshēv. The verse uses this root for both the king’s command to return the ark and his hope that the LORD will bring him back. English separates the two movements; Hebrew joins them in one root, while leaving the outcome of David’s return open.
ALSO GROWS
yāshūv: He returns or will return.
יָשׁוּב
This form visibly carries the root’s consonants and shows the basic movement of return alongside the verse’s causative sense of bringing someone back.
meshūvāh: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can name a turning away, giving its return here the depth of a movement that can restore someone from displacement.
חֵן
ḥēn
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor or act graciously toward someone.
Favor appears in the LORD’s eyes: David’s return rests in a relationship of regard, not in a claim he can make. The ark can return to its place while his own return remains something he hopes to receive.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānan: To show favor; to act graciously.
חָנַן
This verb gives the action behind the favor David hopes to find in the LORD’s eyes.
ḥannūn: Gracious; favor-giving.
חַנּוּן
This adjective describes one who shows favor, keeping the verse’s hope grounded in the LORD’s character.
THE PATTERN
Restoration takes the form of return, and return reaches its fullness when the displaced are received back.
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.THE THREAD
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.Psalm 23 uses the same root שׁוּב (shuv, return) in “restoreth,” placing that return within נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul). It opens David’s hope beyond being brought back to a city: return can also name the restoration of the reader’s inner life.
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