What Does 2 Samuel 23:2 Mean in the King James?
The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.
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 LORD’s breath does not bypass the speaker: it becomes audible when the word rests upon a human tongue.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to your voice now: the LORD’s breath can carry speech through you, and a word can rest upon your tongue before it is spoken. The body is where breath and utterance meet, making the word audible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that every word begins and ends in the speaker’s own control; here, speech is received through the LORD’s breath and voiced by a human tongue.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
ruach
To blow or breathe; moving air.
English “Spirit” can sound separate from the body, while the Hebrew word holds breath and wind together. A related verb carries that motion toward breathing freely and finding room, so the LORD’s breath here becomes speech through a person.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind; moving air.
רוּחַ
Wind and breath are carried by the same Hebrew word, joining what English often separates.
ravach: To breathe freely, have room, or find relief.
רָוַח
This related form carries the movement of breath toward spaciousness and relief.
דִּבֶּר
dibber
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
To speak; to utter.
“spake” in this verse is dibber. The verb for speaking shares its root with a word meaning a word or matter. The root-family connects the act of speaking with what is spoken, adding weight to the utterance that rests upon the tongue.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
This noun shares the speaking verb’s root, holding utterance and its subject together.
dibbur: Speech or utterance.
דִּבּוּר
This noun makes the root’s connection to spoken expression explicit.
לְשׁוֹנִי
leshoni
GROWS FROM
לשן
lashan
Tongue; language.
The same word names the physical tongue and language. That places the word at the meeting point of breath and embodied speech: the utterance has a place on your tongue.
ALSO GROWS
lashon: Tongue; the organ used for speech.
לָשׁוֹן
The word names the body part where the verse locates the utterance.
leshonot: Languages or tongues.
לְשׁוֹנוֹת
The same root extends from the physical tongue to the language spoken through it.
THE PATTERN
Divine speech becomes audible through a human mouth.
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.THE THREAD
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.The same Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruach, breath or wind) names the presence moving over the waters and the breath speaking through a human tongue. In Genesis it moves over creation; here it moves through a person as speech.
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