What Does 2 Samuel 20:13 Mean in the King James?
When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue 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
The Hebrew root behind “highway” also names the siege mound built for the pursuit, so clearing the road already carries the violence forward.
THE MEANING
A crowd regains momentum when the body blocking its way is moved, but its purpose stays the same. Everyone continues after Joab to pursue Sheba; the cleared road carries that pursuit onward. What becomes passable does not become harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that removing an obstruction is automatically peaceful: the cleared road makes the pursuit possible again.
THE ROOT
מְסִלָּה
mesillah
GROWS FROM
סלל
To raise or heap up, forming a raised way.
The highway word grows from סָלַל (salal), “to raise or heap up.” In the same chapter, סֹלְלָה (solelah), “siege mound,” grows from that root too: the raised road and the raised structure used in the siege share one seed.
ALSO GROWS
mesillah: Highway, raised road.
מְסִלָּה
The word for the route the body is removed from carries the sense of a way raised up.
solelah: Siege mound or bank.
סֹלְלָה
The same root names the mound raised against the city as the pursuit advances into siege.
וַיֻּסַר
wayyussar
GROWS FROM
סור
To turn aside, depart, or remove.
“removed” in this verse is wayyussar. The verb describes the body being taken aside, while the root also names turning aside or departing. English makes removal sound like a simple clearing; the Hebrew holds the movement away from the path inside it.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This is the root’s basic motion away from a place or course.
hēsîr: Remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form shows the act of making something depart from its place.
לִרְדֹּף
lirdof
GROWS FROM
רדף
To pursue or chase.
“pursue” in this verse is lirdof. The root names the force of chasing; the object gives that force its direction. In Psalm 34:14, the same root carries pursuit toward שָׁלוֹם (shalom), “wholeness.”
ALSO GROWS
rodef: Pursuer.
רֹדֵף
The pursuer is the one carrying the chase forward.
redifah: Pursuit or persecution.
רְדִיפָה
This noun makes the ongoing force of the chase visible.
THE PATTERN
Removing an obstruction can restore movement while leaving its original force and destination intact.
And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still.Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:THE THREAD
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.The Hebrew verb רָדַף (radaph), “pursue,” appears in both verses. Here the people chase Sheba; Psalm 34:14 directs that same force toward שָׁלוֹם (shalom), “wholeness.”
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