What Does 2 Samuel 15:28 Mean in the King James?
See, I will tarry in the plain of the wilderness, until there come word from you to certify me.
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 makes wilderness (מִדְבָּר, midbār) and word (דָּבָר, dāḇār) echo through the same consonants, joining the place of waiting to what is awaited.
THE MEANING
You are in an exposed, uncertain stretch, staying there until a word reaches you and makes the matter known. The pause is not blank; what happens next depends on something spoken arriving from beyond your present view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every unknown must be solved by immediate action: here, the next step remains open until a word arrives.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak or utter; a related lexical sense means to drive or lead flocks to pasture.
The awaited word is דָּבָר (dāḇār, “word, matter”), while the wilderness is מִדְבָּר (midbār, “wilderness, open pasture”); both carry the consonants ד־ב־ר. Midbār is commonly linked to the pastoral sense of the root, so the echo joins the open place and the incoming word without making them synonyms.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: Spoke, uttered, declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes clear that the awaited word is speech arriving, not simply an idea held in the mind.
midbār: Wilderness, open grazing land.
מִדְבָּר
Its consonants echo דָּבָר (dāḇār, “word, matter”); the paired sounds bring the place of waiting close to the message awaited.
לְהַגִּיד
lehaggid
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
Stand out or be in front; in the causative, make known or declare.
Here, “certify me” is the act of making something known to you. The root also forms words for what stands in front and for a leader at the forefront, as the incoming report brings the next fact into view.
ALSO GROWS
neged: In front of, opposite.
נֶגֶד
The sense of something set before you illuminates how a message brings what was unknown into view.
nagid: Leader, chief.
נָגִיד
This related word carries the sense of one at the front, echoing the report’s role in bringing the next thing forward.
THE PATTERN
In an unfinished interval, waiting holds space for what is not yet visible until a word or reality arrives.
I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.THE THREAD
I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.Psalm 130:5 uses the same noun דָּבָר (dāḇār, “word, matter”) found here, and makes explicit what the waiting can hold: hope in the LORD’s word. The shared root turns the pause toward expectation of something spoken.
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