What Does 2 Samuel 22:27 Mean in the King James?
With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury.
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 pairs purity with purification and crookedness with twisting, showing that the encounter takes its shape from the posture brought into it.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now as an account of encounter: clarity is met with clarity, while a crooked way of meeting God meets a response described through twisting. The two halves present one relation from opposite sides: what is brought into the encounter shapes how it is met.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that God’s response is experienced independently of how a person meets him.
THE ROOT
נָבָר
nāḇār
GROWS FROM
ב־ר־ר
b-r-r
To make clear or pure; to sift or separate out.
The word for the pure one and the verb translated “shew thyself pure” share the root ב־ר־ר. Hebrew links the quality of being clear with the act of becoming clear, a connection English leaves less visible.
ALSO GROWS
bārar: To purify, sift, or select.
בָּרַר
This verb shows purity as a clearing process: what is mixed or clouded is sifted out.
bār: Pure or clean.
בָּר
This related word carries the same cleared, purified quality named in the verse.
עִקֵּשׁ
ʿiqqēš
GROWS FROM
ע־ק־ש
ʿ-q-sh
To bend or twist; as a description, crooked or perverse.
“Froward” describes a person as bent or crooked, not merely difficult. That image leads directly into the next verb, which describes twisting: crookedness is answered in the language of a twist.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāqaš: To bend, twist, or make crooked.
עָקַשׁ
The verb shows the physical image behind the character description.
ʿiqqĕšût: Crookedness or perversity.
עִקְּשׁוּת
This noun names the bent quality that the verse sets against purity.
תִּתְפַּתָּל
titpattāl
GROWS FROM
פ־ת־ל
p-t-l
To twist, entwine, or wrestle.
The verb rendered “shew thyself unsavoury” comes from the language of twisting or wrestling. Set beside עִקֵּשׁ, “crooked,” it gives the second half a vivid shape: crookedness meets a response voiced as twisting.
ALSO GROWS
naphtûlîm: Wrestlings or struggles.
נַפְתּוּלִים
In Genesis 30:8 the related word names wrestling, showing how twisting extends into struggle.
pāṯîl: Cord or thread.
פָּתִיל
A cord made by twisting strands gives a concrete image of the root’s entwining sense.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly depicts God’s response as corresponding to the posture brought toward him.
Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.THE THREAD
With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.Psalm 18:26 repeats the same pure and crooked language, including the verb of twisting behind “froward.” Read beside it, the word “unsavoury” in 2 Samuel also opens onto that twisting image, making the verse’s paired roots easier to see.
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