What Does 2 Samuel 22:35 Mean in the King James?
He teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
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 “teacheth” is also the root of “learn,” making divine strength something the hands come to know.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader now as a scene of combat: God trains the hands for battle, and the arms bend a bow of bronze. Its force remains martial; instruction becomes bodily skill able to meet resistance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s teaching concerns only what the mind can know, never what the body can do.
THE ROOT
מְלַמֵּד
melammed
GROWS FROM
למד
Learn; in the form used here, teach or train.
“teacheth” in this verse is melammed. Hebrew uses the same למד root for learning and teaching: teaching is bound to what the learner comes to know. Here, instruction reaches the hands and arms, so knowledge becomes trained capacity for battle, not information alone.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: To learn.
לָמַד
The same root names what the learner does, linking teaching to learning rather than treating them as separate acts.
limmud: One who has been taught; a learner.
לִמּוּד
Isaiah uses this word for “the learned,” showing how teaching forms a person’s capacity. In this verse, that formed capacity reaches the hands.
THE PATTERN
Divine instruction becomes usable strength by forming the learner for action.
A Psalm of David. Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.THE THREAD
The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.Isaiah uses the same למד root for “the learned” that 2 Samuel uses for “teacheth”: instruction is bound to the learner’s formed capacity. There, training shapes the ear and tongue; here, it reaches the hands and arms.
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