What Does 2 Samuel 18:22 Mean in the King James?
Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But howsoever, let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushi. And Joab said, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready?
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
Readiness to run is not readiness to report.
THE MEANING
This verse keeps visible the gap between your readiness to move and anything ready to say. Joab’s question names what urgency cannot supply: the tidings themselves.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that acting quickly automatically means having something real to carry.
THE ROOT
בְּשׂוֹרָה
besorah
GROWS FROM
בשר
b-s-r
To announce or bring news.
The same root forms the tidings, the act of announcing, and the person who announces. The verse’s tension is that Ahimaaz can run before there is a report for him to announce.
ALSO GROWS
bisser: Announced or proclaimed.
בִּשֵּׂר
The verb names the act that gives tidings their substance.
mevasser: A herald, one who brings tidings.
מְבַשֵּׂר
The herald and the news share a root: movement has purpose when it carries something to announce.
רָץ
rats
GROWS FROM
רוץ
r-w-ts
To run or hurry.
“run” in this verse is rats. The verse repeats this running word, keeping Ahimaaz’s urgency in view. The root also forms the word for a race, but movement alone does not establish what the runner can deliver.
ALSO GROWS
ruts: To run.
רוּץ
This is the action Ahimaaz insists on taking.
merots: A race or course of running.
מְרוֹץ
The same root appears in Ecclesiastes 9:11, where being swift does not guarantee the outcome.
צָדוֹק
Tzadoq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ts-d-q
To be right or aligned.
Zadok’s name carries the root of alignment into the scene. Yet the verse’s hinge remains the presence of a report: a name and a desire to move do not supply what is ready to be announced.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness or alignment.
צֶדֶק
This noun carries the root reflected in Zadok’s name.
tsaddiq: A righteous or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
This branch shows the root describing a person in relation to what is right.
THE PATTERN
A messenger’s movement can carry a report, but cannot generate a report that is missing.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.THE THREAD
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!The Hebrew root behind “tidings” here also forms the word for the one who brings tidings in Isaiah. Isaiah joins the carrier to the message; this verse exposes the gap when the runner is ready but the report is not.
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