What Does 2 Samuel 15:35 Mean in the King James?
And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king’s house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
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
Hearing becomes a channel: the message from the king’s house passes through trusted listeners to those who can carry it onward.
THE MEANING
You are inside a chain of listening and telling: what becomes audible in the king’s house is carried to trusted witnesses. Here, hearing opens into transmission; the message does not stop with the one who receives it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that hearing is complete once a message reaches you; here, receiving it opens the next link in the chain.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמַע
tishma
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
To hear, listen, or heed.
“hear” in this verse is tishma. The same root names both hearing and a report that is heard. Since the verse moves from hearing straight to telling, listening here is not a private endpoint; it opens into response.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear, listen; hear and respond when a response is implied.
שְׁמַע
The received message is followed by the explicit response of carrying it to Zadok and Abiathar.
shemuah: A report or tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root can name both the act of hearing and the message that travels through the hearing chain.
תַּגִּיד
tagid
GROWS FROM
נגד
nagad
To declare, make known, or bring something to notice.
“tell” in this verse is tagid. The message is brought into the open by being passed from one person to another. The verse traces disclosure as a route: what is heard within the king’s house is made known to the priests.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: He declared or made known.
הִגִּיד
This verb form shares the root of “tell” and shows the act of carrying information into view.
maggid: One who declares or announces.
מַגִּיד
This branch names the person who carries a message onward, making the relay itself visible.
צָדוֹק
tsadoq
GROWS FROM
צדק
tsadaq
To be right or aligned.
Zadok’s name carries the root of alignment. The message is entrusted to a priest whose name bears that quality, placing the chain of disclosure beside alignment without claiming the message itself is aligned.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness or alignment.
צֶדֶק
This noun carries the root within Zadok’s name and gives the name its quality.
tsaddiq: One who is right or aligned.
צַדִּיק
This related form names a person by the same root quality carried in Zadok’s name.
THE PATTERN
A message becomes protection when a trusted hearer carries it onward.
Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai’s name.And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.THE THREAD
Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a wench went and told them; and they went and told king David.The two instances of “told” here use the same Hebrew root נגד as “tell” in the current verse. The repeated root reveals the message’s route: it reaches David by passing through trusted hands.
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