What Does 2 Samuel 18:15 Mean in the King James?
And ten young men that bare Joab’s armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him.
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
Absalom is enclosed before he is struck; the verse’s first violence is the circle itself.
THE MEANING
Ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surround Absalom and strike him until he dies; the killing is collective and direct. “Compassed about” sets the scene as an enclosure before the blows land. Absalom’s name joins av, “father,” with shalom, “wholeness,” a stark collision with his violent end.
THE ROOT
וַיָּסֹבּוּ
wayyassobbu
GROWS FROM
סבב
to go around, surround, encircle
“compassed about” in this verse is wayyassobbu. The verb makes the men move around Absalom until he is enclosed; it describes the shape of the attack, not merely the men’s location. The same root appears when the psalmist says enemies “compassed me about,” connecting these scenes through the image of a circle closing around someone.
ALSO GROWS
sābab: to go around or encircle
סָבַב
This is the verb’s root form, making the enclosing motion explicit.
saviv: around, all around
סָבִיב
This related form carries the sense of being surrounded on every side that shapes the scene here.
אַבְשָׁלוֹם
Avshalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
to be whole, complete, sound
Absalom’s name joins av, “father,” with shalom, “wholeness.” That name-nature stands in sharp tension with a verse in which the surrounding men end his life through direct violence.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This is the name’s central element, placing wholeness beside the killing.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This related form makes the root’s sense of completeness audible within Absalom’s name.
וַיַּכּוּ
wayyakku
GROWS FROM
נכה
to strike, hit
“smote” in this verse is wayyakku. The verse names the bodily blows and then names the killing with a separate verb. English can blur the two into one outcome, but the Hebrew keeps the physical attack and death distinct.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: to strike or hit
נָכָה
The root verb identifies the action the armor-bearers perform.
makkah: a blow, stroke
מַכָּה
This related noun makes the force of the striking concrete.
THE PATTERN
When danger closes around someone, scripture makes the surrounding circle the scene of a decisive encounter.
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,THE THREAD
All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.“Compassed me about” uses the same Hebrew root, סבב (sabab), as the men surrounding Absalom. The psalmist is encircled yet answers the circle with resistance, while this verse shows the encirclement ending in Absalom’s death.
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