What Does 2 Samuel 22:6 Mean in the King James?
The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented 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 “sorrows” are cords: this verse pictures death as a grip that binds and closes around you.
THE MEANING
When death feels near, this verse speaks from inside the constriction: cords close around you, traps catch at your steps, and danger gets there first. Its images give the pressure a shape you can recognize as something that surrounds and catches.
THE ROOT
חבלי
ḥevlei
GROWS FROM
חבל
The root’s concrete image is a cord or band that binds; חֶבֶל (ḥevel) means “cord” or “rope.”
The form behind “sorrows” also carries the image of cords, while related חֲבָלִים (ḥavalim) can mean “pangs.” English holds the pain; the Hebrew also lets you feel its tightening, binding force.
ALSO GROWS
ḥevel: Cord, rope, or band.
חֶבֶל
This branch makes the verse’s distress a tangible binding that closes around the speaker.
ḥavalim: Pangs or birth pains.
חֲבָלִים
This related sense shows how the same word family can name pain as a constricting bodily force.
קדמוני
qiddemuni
GROWS FROM
קדם
Before, in front; to come before, meet, or precede.
Here “prevented” carries the older sense of “came before” or “met.” The danger reaches the speaker ahead of him, as though it arrives before he can get clear.
ALSO GROWS
qadam: To come before, meet, or precede.
קָדַם
This verb makes the danger an encounter that reaches the speaker first.
qedem: Front, east, or what is ancient and earlier.
קֶדֶם
The related word keeps the root’s sense of what lies before or ahead.
מוקשי
moqeshei
GROWS FROM
יקש
To set a snare or trap; to ensnare.
“snares” in this verse is moqeshei. The plural form makes death sound like a field of traps. The root names capture itself, giving the verse an image of danger that catches and holds.
ALSO GROWS
moqesh: A snare or trap.
מוֹקֵשׁ
This noun is the concrete image carried by “snares of death.”
yaqush: A fowler, one who catches birds with a snare.
יָקוּשׁ
This related form reveals the trap as a mechanism of capture, not merely a feeling of fear.
THE PATTERN
Death’s pressure is pictured as an enclosing grip, and its release as that grip being loosed.
The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.THE THREAD
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.The phrase חבלי (ḥevlei, “cords” or “pangs”) appears here too, placing the image of binding inside “sorrows.” Psalm 116 sets the cords of death beside the pains of Sheol, showing the same enclosing grip from another angle.
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