What Does 2 Samuel 23:25 Mean in the King James?
Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,
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 repeated “Harodite” carries an echo of trembling into both names, yet neither man is reduced to that echo.
THE MEANING
Your identity can hold a distinct name and a shared belonging at once: Shammah and Elika remain separately named, while the same Harodite designation joins them. That designation echoes trembling, but the verse does not turn the echo into a verdict on either person.
THE ROOT
הַחֲרֹדִי
ha-ḥărōdî
GROWS FROM
חרד
ḥ-r-d
To tremble, quake, or be afraid.
“Harodite” links both men to a place-name associated with trembling. The root supplies an echo, not a claim that either man is afraid.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārad: To tremble, quake, or be afraid.
חָרַד
This verb carries the root sense that echoes in the shared designation.
ḥărādāh: Trembling, terror, or dread.
חֲרָדָה
The noun names the state itself; here, the root is embedded in a place-linked identity instead.
ḥărōd: Harod, a place-name; En-Harod appears in Judges 7:1.
חֲרֹד
This place-name connects “Harodite” to location while leaving the men’s own emotional state unstated.
שַׁמָּה
Shammah
GROWS FROM
שמם
š-m-m
To be desolate, devastated, or appalled.
Shammah is commonly connected with a root for desolation and stunned astonishment. That meaning gives the name an unexpected edge in this list, but the verse does not make it a description of the man.
ALSO GROWS
šāmēm: To be desolate, devastated, or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
This verbal form gives the name its association with a state of desolation or astonishment.
šəmāmāh: Desolation or devastation.
שְׁמָמָה
This noun shows the same root can name a condition, not only a response.
THE PATTERN
The root behind trembling can echo in a place-linked identity, while the surrounding scene determines whether it describes fear or reverence.
Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.THE THREAD
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.Here, חָרֵד (ḥārēd), meaning “trembling,” appears as “trembleth”, the root that echoes inside “Harodite” now describes a response to a word. The verse shows that this root’s echo can carry reverence as well as fear.
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