What Does 2 Samuel 17:15 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 same Hebrew root names Ahithophel’s counsel and Hushai’s, showing two rival plans with real force rather than passing opinions.
THE MEANING
A plan becomes shared knowledge as Hushai carries each counselor’s words into the priests’ circle. The verse shows that counsel gains force through who hears it and can carry it onward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that advice is only talk: here, each counsel is part of a consequential plan.
THE ROOT
יָעַץ
yaʿats
GROWS FROM
יעץ
To advise, counsel, or form a plan.
“counselled” in this verse is yaʿats. The same root sits beneath what Ahithophel advises and what Hushai says he has advised. English can make “counsel” sound like opinion; the Hebrew root also carries the sense of a plan taking shape.
ALSO GROWS
ʿetsah: Counsel, advice, or a plan.
עֵצָה
This noun shows how the root can name not only advising, but the plan that emerges from it.
yoʿets: A counselor or adviser.
יוֹעֵץ
This branch names the person whose counsel shapes the plans Hushai reports.
אַבְשָׁלוֹם
Avshalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole or complete.
“Absalom” in this verse is Avshalom. The name joins אָב (av, “father”) to שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”), placing “father of wholeness” beside two rival plans. The name adds a resonance of wholeness to a sentence about counsel without deciding what those plans will bring.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the word-family carried within Absalom’s name.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of wholeness explicit.
THE PATTERN
Plans become actionable as counsel is spoken, considered with others, and carried toward a decision.
Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.THE THREAD
Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.The Hebrew עֵצָה (ʿetsah, “counsel” or “plan”) shares the root יָעַץ (yaʿats, “to advise or plan”) with both instances of “counselled” here. Proverbs makes explicit what this verse shows in motion: counsel helps form a purpose and direct a conflict.
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