What Does 2 Samuel 20:10 Mean in the King James?
But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand: so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.
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
A killing does not pause the pursuit around it: Joab’s one fatal blow is followed at once by the chase for Sheba.
THE MEANING
Amasa’s body is opened by Joab’s sword, and his entrails spill to the ground. Joab does not strike again; Amasa dies, while Joab and Abishai pursue Sheba. Death and pursuit occupy the same frame, with no pause to soften the violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a killing ends when the blade goes still; Joab’s pursuit continues immediately after Amasa dies.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁמַר
nishmar
GROWS FROM
שמר
To keep watch, guard, or preserve.
The verb comes from שׁמר (shamar, guard or keep) and can carry the sense of guarding oneself. That gives “took no heed” a bodily shade: Amasa does not keep himself guarded against the sword, while the scene shows what the sword does to him.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watchman, guard
שֹׁמֵר
A shomer watches over a boundary; this branch brings the guarding sense inside “took no heed.”
mishmeret: Guard duty, charge, custody
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch names the keeping entrusted to someone, sharpening the contrast with Amasa’s failure to guard himself from the sword.
THE PATTERN
A killing does not necessarily end violence; it can give way to the next act against another person.
And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The English “keep” here comes from שׁמר (shamar, guard or keep), the same root behind Amasa’s “took no heed.” The root links the human charge to guard what is alive with the absence of guarding in this fatal encounter.
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