What Does 2 Samuel 20:16 Mean in the King James?
Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear; say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee.
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 wisdom here begins by summoning power into listening distance.
THE MEANING
A wise voice can rise from within a threatened place, and the opening comes when the one with power draws close enough to hear. Listening makes room for words that can alter what happens next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the voice inside a threatened city has nothing to offer, or that power can act wisely without first listening.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, and, in a call that invites response, receive what is heard.
English can make “hear” sound passive, but the repeated Hebrew command stands at the start of a chain of response: the listeners are to carry the woman’s words to Joab. Hearing becomes the first movement that makes her speech possible.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This command form shares the root’s movement from receiving a sound toward answering it.
shemuʿah: A report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root can name both the act of hearing and the message received, fitting the passage’s movement from the woman’s call to the words carried to Joab.
קְרַב
qerav
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach; draw near.
The approach is part of the encounter: before the woman can speak with Joab, he must cross the distance. The same root appears in korban, a drawing near, so “come near” carries a sense of arrival into contact as well as physical proximity.
ALSO GROWS
qorban: An offering; something brought near, a drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
It shares the root of Joab’s commanded approach, linking nearness with entry into an encounter.
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
This branch names the closeness that the woman asks Joab to create so they can speak.
אֲדַבְּרָה
adabberah
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; the root family also names a word or matter.
“Speak” in this verse is adabberah. The verb for speaking belongs to the same root family as davar, “word” or “matter.” The woman’s speech is not empty sound here: it is a matter she brings before the commander, once he comes close enough to hear it.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun shares the root and lets “speak” carry the added sense of bringing a matter into the encounter.
dibber: Spoke; addressed.
דִּבֵּר
This verb form shares the root with the woman’s “that I may speak,” making the act of addressing Joab explicit.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom can redirect a dangerous moment when a voice is heard before force carries through.
Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:THE THREAD
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.The Hebrew verb behind “heareth” comes from the same שמע (sh-m-ʿ) root as the woman’s repeated “Hear, hear.” Proverbs names the folly of answering before hearing; here, the woman deliberately opens the space for hearing before the crisis proceeds.
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