What Does 2 Samuel 21:3 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?
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
Here, “atonement” is a covering sought from the people who were harmed, because their blessing of the LORD’s inheritance cannot be detached from the wrong done to them.
THE MEANING
A wrong remains present in communal life, and the question of what can cover it is put directly to those who were harmed. Their voice is tied to the blessing of the LORD’s inheritance; the verse does not separate communal blessing from the injury. The covering sought here is concrete and relational, not a word spoken over an untouched wound.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that public devotion can bless a community while the people harmed are bypassed.
THE ROOT
אֲכַפְּרָה
ʾăkappərāh
GROWS FROM
כפר
Cover; cover over; make a covering.
English “atonement” can sound abstract, but כפר (kaphar, “cover”) holds the idea of covering inside the word. Here that covering is sought from the people harmed, so the word sits beside their voice rather than replacing it.
ALSO GROWS
kippur: Atonement; covering.
כִּפּוּר
This related word shows that the verse’s “atonement” belongs to a family of words built around covering.
kapporet: The cover of the ark.
כַּפֹּרֶת
This branch gives the root a tangible shape: a cover placed over something, not merely an abstract declaration.
וּבֵרַכְתֶּם
u-verakhtem
GROWS FROM
ברך
Bend the knee; bless.
The word translated “bless” shares its root with “knee,” making blessing more than a positive declaration. Those asked about covering the breach are also the ones whose blessing is sought for the LORD’s inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
The bodily meaning beneath the root gives blessing a posture of bending.
berakhah: Blessing.
בְּרָכָה
This branch is the blessing the Gibeonites are asked to speak over the LORD’s inheritance.
דָּוִד
Dawid
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; beloved kin.
The name David carries the nature “beloved.” That meaning sits beside his public responsibility here: beloved standing does not itself cover the wrong, so he asks the injured what he can do.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved one; also an uncle or close male relative.
דּוֹד
The name’s root carries a sense of beloved relationship rather than a bare label.
dōdîm: Loves; expressions of affection.
דּוֹדִים
This related form keeps the root’s language of love and relationship audible in David’s name.
THE PATTERN
Covering answers a breach in a way that restores a people’s relation with God and with one another.
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.THE THREAD
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.The verb translated “forgave” here comes from כפר (kaphar, “cover”), the same Hebrew root behind “atonement” in David’s question. The psalm places that covering beside compassion and the withholding of destruction, showing how the root speaks to what happens among a people.
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