What Does 2 Samuel 15:29 Mean in the King James?
Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem: and they tarried there.
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 ark’s return to Yerushalayim ends in dwelling: Hebrew pairs bringing back with staying, and the place-name carries wholeness.
THE MEANING
The ark is brought back to Jerusalem while Zadok and Abiathar remain there. Return and dwelling belong together: what comes back is given a place to remain, even as David goes another way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that sacred presence must follow the visible leader wherever he goes: the ark has a place of return even when David’s path leads away.
THE ROOT
וַיָּשֶׁב
wayyashev
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
sh-w-b
Turn back, return; in this causative form, bring back or restore.
The Hebrew verb rendered “carried ... again” comes from שׁוּב (shuv, return), with the sense of bringing the ark back. Return is the heart of the movement: the ark is restored to its place in Yerushalayim.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Turned back; returned.
שָׁב
This form makes the movement of return explicit in the root behind the ark’s journey.
heshiv: Brought back; restored.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form illuminates how the ark is brought back to its place.
וַיֵּשְׁבוּ
wayyeshvu
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁב
y-sh-b
Sit, settle, dwell, remain.
English “tarried” can sound like a pause, while יָשַׁב (yashav) carries the sense of sitting, settling, and dwelling. וַיָּשֶׁב (wayyashev, brought back) and וַיֵּשְׁבוּ (wayyeshvu, remained) are different roots, but their shared shin-bet sound links return with settled presence.
ALSO GROWS
yoshev: One who sits or dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
It makes the priests’ staying read as dwelling, not merely waiting.
moshav: A dwelling place or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
It echoes the place where those who remain can be settled.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
Whole, complete; the root carried in shalom, wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) with a dual ending: two wholenesses. The ark returns to a place whose name holds wholeness, and its keepers remain there.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness.
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the nature carried by the place where the ark returns.
shalem: Whole; complete.
שָׁלֵם
It echoes the completeness toward which return and dwelling point.
THE PATTERN
Restoration reaches wholeness when what returns is given a place to dwell among the people.
A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.THE THREAD
A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.The Hebrew verb behind “turned again” is שׁוּב (shuv, return), the same root behind the verb rendered “carried ... again” here. The ark returns to Jerusalem, while Zion’s restoration is pictured as joy: return brings what was displaced back to its place.
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