What Does 2 Samuel 22:5 Mean in the King James?

When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;

2 Samuel 22:5 · KJV

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 “waves” are breakers, so death reaches the speaker as a force that breaks while it surrounds.

THE MEANING

When death or ruin feels close, this verse gives that pressure a shape: breakers circle, torrents surge, and fear rises. It names the force of being overwhelmed without making the danger seem small.

THE ROOT

מִשְׁבְּרֵי

mishberei

GROWS FROM

שבר

To break, fracture, or shatter.

The Hebrew word rendered “waves” is mishberei, “breakers,” from ⁨שבר⁩ (shavar), “to break.” The image holds the water and its impact together: death’s breakers close around the speaker, carrying the force of breaking within the word.

ALSO GROWS

shavar: To break or shatter.

שָׁבַר

It names the breaking force carried by the image of the breakers.

shever: A break, fracture, or ruin.

שֶׁבֶר

It shows how this root can name both the act of breaking and the damage left behind.

mishbar: A breaker or surf wave.

מִשְׁבָּר

It is another form for a crashing wave, making the breaking action part of the water image itself.

THE PATTERN

Scripture gives overwhelming peril the shape of water rising beyond a person’s ability to stand.

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

Psalm 69:1 · KJVThe waters enter so far that the speaker describes them as reaching the living soul.

For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

Jonah 2:3 · KJVThe threat becomes total immersion as floods surround and waves pass over the speaker.

But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

Matthew 14:30 · KJVThe rising water turns fear into the immediate experience of sinking.

THE THREAD

Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

Psalm 42:7 · KJV

The Hebrew word for “waves” here shares the root ⁨שבר⁩ (shavar), “to break,” with the “breakers” in 2 Samuel 22:5. In one verse death’s breakers surround the speaker; in the other, the breakers pass over, same root, two ways overwhelming force arrives.

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