What Does 2 Samuel 19:7 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably unto thy servants: for I swear by the LORD, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night: and that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until now.
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 verse makes comfort visible: its first movement is out of hiding, and its speech lands directly on the heart.
THE MEANING
The passage addresses the moment when grief keeps you out of reach: your absence presses on the people still with you. It calls for rising, going out, and speaking to their hearts, then states the cost without cushioning: if you do not go out, no one stays with you that night, and that becomes worse than all the evil that has come upon you. Comfort here is speech joined to visible presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
My grief is private, so my withdrawal affects no one else.
THE ROOT
דַּבֵּר עַל־לֵב
dabbēr ʿal-lēv
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak, utter; also word or matter.
“speak comfortably” in this verse is dabbēr ʿal-lēv. The phrase דַּבֵּר עַל־לֵב (dabbēr ʿal-lēv, “speak to the heart”) locates comfort in words directed toward the hearer’s heart. The root also forms דָּבָר (dābār, “word, matter”), tying spoken reassurance to the word itself.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The comfort in the verse is carried by words spoken directly to the heart.
dibber: Spoke or speaks.
דִּבֵּר
This spoken form makes comfort an act of addressing someone, not only a feeling.
צֵא
tsēʾ
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ts-ʾ
Go out, come out, emerge.
The same root appears in the command and again in “if you do not go forth,” making emergence the sentence’s hinge. Its branches name an exit and an outlet, so “go forth” carries the movement of coming out into view.
ALSO GROWS
yetsiʾah: Going out, departure, or exit.
יְצִיאָה
The command calls for an actual emergence from withdrawal.
mōṣāʾ: Outlet, exit, or point of departure.
מוֹצָא
This branch echoes the verse’s insistence that going out is the opening through which the crisis may change.
קוּם
qūm
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand, or come into standing.
“arise” in this verse is qūm. The command is קוּם (qūm, “rise, stand”), a movement into standing rather than a change of mood alone. מָקוֹם (maqom, “place”) is formed from this root, linking standing with the place one occupies.
ALSO GROWS
maqom: Place or standing place.
מָקוֹם
The branch brings a spatial dimension to “arise”: the person takes a place among others.
hēqîm: Raise, establish, or cause to stand.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows the root’s movement from rising to being set firmly in place.
THE PATTERN
The movement from isolation toward shared life begins with presence and speech that reaches the heart.
Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.THE THREAD
Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.Genesis 50:21 uses the same phrase, דַּבֵּר עַל־לֵב (dabbēr ʿal-lēv, “speak to the heart”), rendered “spake kindly” in the KJV. It shows what this verse means by comfort: speech aimed at the heart, joined with a concrete promise of care.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us