What Does 2 Samuel 15:9 Mean in the King James?
And the king said unto him, Go in peace. So he arose, and went to Hebron.
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
Here, peace is not the opposite of movement: the command is to go, with wholeness carried into the going.
THE MEANING
The words grant departure and speak wholeness over it in the same breath. Hebron’s name carries the sense of joining, so the verse holds movement and connection together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that wholeness is possible only when you stay where you are.
THE ROOT
בְּשָׁלוֹם
bᵊšālôm
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
To be whole or complete; wholeness.
Shalom names wholeness, not merely the absence of conflict. The verse speaks that wholeness over someone who is moving on: peace travels with the departure.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Complete, whole, intact.
שָׁלֵם
It shows the root’s sense of wholeness in a person or thing made complete.
shillem: To pay, repay, or make restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
The same root reaches toward making something whole or settling what is owed.
לֵךְ
lekh
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To go or walk.
“Go” in this verse is lekh. The command carries the sense of movement on a way, not a frozen state. Joined to shalom, it lets wholeness accompany the going rather than depend on standing still.
ALSO GROWS
halikhah: Walking, going.
הֲלִיכָה
It keeps the bodily movement inside the root’s idea of going.
halakhah: A way of proceeding or practice.
הֲלָכָה
It shows how the root can describe a course of movement through life.
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥevron
GROWS FROM
חבר
ḥ-b-r
To join, bind, or associate.
Hebron’s name is linked to the root of joining and association. Set beside “go in wholeness,” the destination adds a quiet connection: departure still leads into relation.
ALSO GROWS
chaver: Companion or associate.
חָבֵר
It shows the root as a person joined with another.
chibbur: Joining or connection.
חִבּוּר
It makes explicit the relation carried in Hebron’s name.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness can accompany separation and movement; departure need not mean abandonment.
That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.THE THREAD
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.Isaiah binds going forth and the same root, shalom, into one scene: movement is accompanied by wholeness. The surrounding creation answers with joy, making departure an opening into life rather than a loss of peace.
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