What Does 2 Samuel 23:6 Mean in the King James?
But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands:
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
Belial means “without benefit,” and the verse gives that worthlessness a shape: thorn-growth no hand can safely gather.
THE MEANING
The verse names what is alive now: what brings no benefit becomes thornlike, wounding the hand that tries to hold it. Its nature cannot be changed by taking hold of it; the harm is revealed in the very act of grasping.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every harmful thing can be mastered through closer contact or a firmer grip.
THE ROOT
בְּלִיַּעַל
beliyyaʿal
GROWS FROM
יעל
y-ʿ-l
The root יעל (yaʿal) means to be useful or yield benefit; בְּלִיַּעַל (beliyyaʿal, worthlessness) is commonly understood as בְּלִי (belî, without) + יַעַל (yaʿal, usefulness).
“Sons of Belial” carries more than a moral label: Belial names what is without profit or usefulness. The next image gives that barrenness a body, thorn-growth the hand cannot safely gather.
ALSO GROWS
yaʿal: Be useful; yield benefit.
יַעַל
It supplies the sense of usefulness that the name Belial negates.
hōʿîl: Benefit; be useful.
הוֹעִיל
This verbal form makes the root’s idea of yielding benefit concrete.
יִקָּחוּ
yiqqāḥû
GROWS FROM
לקח
l-q-ḥ
The root לקח (lāqaḥ) means to take or receive.
“taken” in this verse is yiqqāḥû. English “take” can sound like simple physical capture, but this root also reaches into receiving. Here the thorny growth resists being safely grasped and brought into the hand.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: Take; receive.
לָקַח
It is the root verb behind “taken,” making the failed grasp central to the image.
leqaḥ: Teaching; instruction, what is received.
לֶקַח
This related noun extends “taking” from physical grasp to reception.
THE PATTERN
Thorn growth reveals what cannot be safely gathered and is rejected rather than cultivated.
And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.THE THREAD
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.Hebrews makes explicit the rejection already present in David’s image of thorn-growth that cannot be taken in hand. Together, the verses show the thorn as something recognized by what it bears and not safely gathered.
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