What Does 2 Samuel 18:14 Mean in the King James?
Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.
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 Hebrew places Absalom’s wound and the oak’s center under one word: Joab drives the darts into a man’s heart while he is held in the tree’s heart.
THE MEANING
“Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.” Hebrew uses the same word, לֵב (lev, “heart; inner center”), for Absalom’s heart and the oak’s center. The verse keeps the violence exact: a living man is pierced while caught in the tree.
THE ROOT
לֵב
lev
GROWS FROM
ל־ב־ב
l-b-b
Heart or inward center, including thought and resolve.
The Hebrew repeats “in the heart” for both Absalom and the oak. English renders the second occurrence as “in the midst,” hiding the shared word for the place of the wound and the place holding him.
ALSO GROWS
levav: Heart; inner self, thought, or resolve.
לֵבָב
This expanded form carries the inward sense of heart alongside its bodily sense.
belev: In the heart; at the center.
בְּלֵב
This phrase occurs twice in the Hebrew verse, naming both Absalom’s heart and the oak’s center.
וַיִּתְקָעֵם
wayyiqtaʿēm
GROWS FROM
ת־ק־ע
To thrust or drive in; to fasten; also, to blow a horn.
The verb means to thrust or drive in and is also used for fastening and blowing a horn. Here it names directed force entering a living body; the root’s other branches add the senses of fixing and impact.
ALSO GROWS
uteqaʿtiv: I will fasten him, as a peg (Isaiah 22:23).
וּתְקַעְתִּיו
The same root describes driving a peg into place, giving the verse’s verb a concrete sense of forceful entry.
wetaqʿu: And they shall blow the trumpets (Joshua 6:4).
וְתָקְעוּ
The root also names the forceful sounding of a trumpet, another expression of its physical action.
THE PATTERN
The narrative names violence through the weapon and the body it enters, keeping the act physically exact.
Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.THE THREAD
And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.Isaiah’s וּתְקַעְתִּיו (uteqaʿtiv, “I will fasten him”) shares the root ת־ק־ע (t-q-ʿ, “thrust or drive in”) with Joab’s verb. The same root describes a peg fastened in place and weapons driven into a living man’s heart.
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