What Does 2 Samuel 23:11 Mean in the King James?
And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: and the people fled from the Philistines.
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 word for “fled” shares its root with a word for “refuge,” linking flight with escape from danger rather than a verdict on courage.
THE MEANING
A gathered force faces a field full of lentils, and the people flee before it. The sentence leaves their flight unjudged, keeping the threatened patch of provision in the center of the scene.
THE ROOT
נָס
nās
GROWS FROM
נוס
נוס (nūs): flee, escape, take flight.
“fled” in this verse is nās. The people’s verb נָס (nās) belongs to the root נוס (nūs), which also gives מָנוֹס (mānōs), a refuge or place of escape. Flight and refuge sit in the same word-family, so the verse names movement away from danger without calling it cowardice.
ALSO GROWS
nūs: To flee or take flight.
נוּס
This is the verb’s root form; נָס is its inflected form in the verse.
mānōs: A refuge or place of escape.
מָנוֹס
This noun shares the root’s consonants and joins the idea of fleeing to the possibility of shelter.
חֶלְקַת
ḥelqat
GROWS FROM
חלק
חלק (ḥālaq): divide, apportion, share.
“piece of ground” in this verse is ḥelqat. The Hebrew phrase calls this a חֶלְקַת הַשָּׂדֶה, a portion of the field. Its root connects the small, specific patch to the language of a share: the gathered threat and the people’s flight meet around a concrete piece of cultivated ground.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēleq: A portion or share.
חֵלֶק
It uses the same consonants, חלק, and makes the idea of a distinct portion explicit.
maḥlaqah: A division or section.
מַחְלָקָה
Its consonants include חלק, carrying the same root’s sense of dividing something into a distinct part.
וַיִּקָּבְצוּ
wayyiqqāveṣū
GROWS FROM
קבץ
קבץ (qāvaṣ): gather, collect, bring together.
“gathered together” in this verse is wayyiqqāveṣū. The Philistines arrive as a gathered mass, while the people move away. The verse’s opposing motions, concentration and flight, make the field the point where the threat becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
qibbuts: A gathering or collection.
קִבּוּץ
It shares the consonants קבץ and names the act of bringing things together.
miqbaṣ: A collection or assemblage.
מִקְבָּץ
It carries the same root consonants, echoing the troop assembled against the field.
THE PATTERN
When danger comes into view, people flee, leaving whoever or whatever they were beside more exposed.
And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.And they all forsook him, and fled.But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.The Psalm’s “flee” and Samuel’s “fled” come from the same Hebrew root, נוס. The root describes escape in both scenes; the people flee before the Philistines here, while the Psalm describes God’s enemies fleeing before him.
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