What Does 2 Samuel 17:4 Mean in the King James?
And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
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
What pleases them is literally good “in their eyes”, the verse locates the verdict in perception, not in the counsel itself.
THE MEANING
A proposal can look good to everyone whose judgment surrounds you and still be only a judgment of sight. Here, the word becomes “good” in the eyes of those who receive it, so their approval shows what they see before it shows what the proposal is.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that unanimous agreement proves a course is wise: agreement shows shared perception, not the truth of the matter.
THE ROOT
וַיִּיטַב
wayyiṭaḇ
GROWS FROM
יטב
y-ṭ-b
To be good or go well; in this form, to be good or pleasing.
“pleased well” in this verse is wayyiṭaḇ. The Hebrew says the word “was good” in their eyes. Goodness is located in their seeing, so even unanimous approval reveals their point of view rather than an independent verdict.
ALSO GROWS
yāṭaḇ: Be good; go well.
יָטַב
This is the same verb root, showing that “pleased well” carries the sense of the proposal seeming good to them.
hēṭîḇ: Do good; make good.
הֵיטִיב
This related form keeps the language of goodness in view, while this verse locates that judgment in the elders’ and Absalom’s eyes.
הַדָּבָר
ha-dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; דָּבָר (dāḇār) means a word, matter, or thing.
Hebrew uses one word for what is spoken and the matter being considered. The counsel is both a saying and the thing on which they pass judgment.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: Spoke; uttered.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken counsel and the matter it puts before its hearers grow from the same root.
dĕvārīm: Words; matters; things.
דְּבָרִים
The plural preserves the same overlap between speech and the matters people discuss or decide.
THE PATTERN
What looks right to people remains a judgment of sight until its way and its fruit are tested.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.THE THREAD
And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.The Hebrew דָּבָר (dāḇār, word or matter) appears here as “saying” and in the previous verse as “oracle.” The shared word links counsel with language carrying divine authority, while 17:4 still locates its goodness in the eyes of those who welcome it.
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