What Does 2 Samuel 22:21 Mean in the King James?
The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
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’s hidden hinge is that recompense is described as a return: what comes back meets alignment where it becomes visible in the hands.
THE MEANING
Alignment is not an inward label here; it is visible in what the reader’s hands do. The LORD’s response appears as a return corresponding to that lived integrity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that righteousness can remain a private claim detached from conduct: the verse places it beside the cleanness of the hands.
THE ROOT
צִדְקָתִי
tsidqati
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
rightness, justice, alignment
The verse’s word for righteousness grows from the root of what is right or aligned. Beside clean hands, that alignment is shown as something embodied in action, not merely claimed as an idea.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: rightness, justice, alignment
צֶדֶק
It shows the shared root’s basic sense of being in right relation.
tsaddiq: a just or aligned person
צַדִּיק
This branch describes a person through the same quality that the verse says is reflected in the speaker’s life.
tsedaqah: righteousness, justice, alignment
צְדָקָה
It is another form of the root that keeps righteousness connected to what is right in practice.
בֹּר
bor
GROWS FROM
ברר
b-r-r
to clarify, purify, or make clean
The word for cleanness carries the sense of what has been made clear or pure. Placed beside hands, it connects purity to what is done and handled.
ALSO GROWS
barar: to purify, cleanse, or clarify
בָּרַר
This verb brings out the process behind the cleanness named in the verse.
bar: pure or clean
בָּר
This related form shows the root’s link between cleanness and purity.
יָשִׁיב
yāšîb
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
to turn back, return
The verb translated ‘recompensed’ is formed from the root meaning return. The verse pictures the LORD’s response as something returned to the speaker, corresponding to the alignment and clean hands it names.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: to return or turn back
שׁוּב
This is the root that gives the recompense its sense of return.
teshuvah: return or turning
תְּשׁוּבָה
This related noun makes the root’s movement of turning or returning explicit.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s return corresponds to the alignment expressed in a person’s actions.
The LORD render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for the LORD delivered thee into my hand to day, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’s anointed.If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?Who will render to every man according to his deeds:THE THREAD
Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.This companion line repeats the same Hebrew roots for righteousness and clean hands, then adds that the cleanness is ‘in his eyesight.’ The shared roots show that the integrity named here is visible to the LORD.
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