What Does 2 Samuel 22:51 Mean in the King James?
He is the tower of salvation for his king: and sheweth mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.
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 KJV’s tower image echoes the Hebrew root for making great: deliverance rises into shelter around the king.
THE MEANING
God makes deliverance great enough to shelter the king. His faithful love rests on his anointed one and reaches David, the beloved, דָּוִד (Dawid), and his seed through the ages. Rescue here becomes shelter whose reach continues beyond the one who receives it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deliverance is only a private, temporary rescue that ends with its recipient.
THE ROOT
יְשׁוּעוֹת
yeshuʿot
GROWS FROM
י־שׁ־ע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, to bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
The KJV’s salvation carries the sense of being brought out into room to live. Here that deliverance is not small or momentary: it is made great enough to shelter the king.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver, bring to safety.
יָשַׁע
The verb behind deliverance shows that rescue is movement out of constriction.
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This singular form shares the verse’s root and names the rescue that becomes shelter.
moshia: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings someone out, keeping the verse’s focus on God as the source of rescue.
מַגְדִּיל
magdil
GROWS FROM
ג־ד־ל
g-d-l
To grow, become great, or enlarge.
“tower / makes great” in this verse is magdil. The Hebrew form means making great, while the related מִגְדָּל (migdal, “tower”) carries the image of rising height. The root-family lets the verse hold both ideas together: deliverance grows into shelter.
ALSO GROWS
migdal: Tower.
מִגְדָּל
This related branch gives the KJV’s image of height and shelter.
gadol: Great, large.
גָּדוֹל
This branch shows the enlargement carried by the Hebrew form in the verse.
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ע
z-r-ʿ
To sow or scatter seed.
The same word can mean seed or offspring: what is sown carries life forward. The verse moves from the anointed king to his seed, presenting deliverance as something that reaches into later generations.
ALSO GROWS
zaraʿ: To sow.
זָרַע
This verb reveals the living image inside seed: something planted that can continue to grow.
zaruʿa: Sown.
זָרוּעַ
This related form evokes what has been planted and remains capable of bearing fruit.
THE PATTERN
God’s deliverance brings people out of constriction and carries its sheltering promise forward.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;THE THREAD
Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.The parallel line says great deliverance where 2 Samuel’s KJV gives the image of a tower, letting the Hebrew sense of enlargement sound beside the image of shelter. Both verses use י־שׁ־ע (y-sh-ʿ, “deliver”), while ג־ד־ל (g-d-l, “grow or make great”) links the greatness of rescue with the tower’s rising height.
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