What Does 2 Samuel 3:13 Mean in the King James?
And he said, Well; I will make a league with thee: but one thing I require of thee, that is, Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal Saul’s daughter, when thou comest to see my face.
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
David calls it a covenant, yet makes access to his face conditional on Michal being brought to him.
THE MEANING
A bond can be offered with access held behind a condition. David’s face remains unavailable until Michal is brought; she is named as a term of the agreement, but is given no voice in the sentence. The verse shows how a promise between two speakers can place a third person inside its terms.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that an agreement called a covenant is necessarily unconditional: here the offer immediately includes a demand that governs access.
THE ROOT
שֹׁאֵל
sho’el
GROWS FROM
שׁאל
sha’al
To ask, request, or inquire.
“require” in this verse is sho’el. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of asking or requesting. It echoes Saul’s name, שָׁאוּל (Sha’ul), meaning “asked for”: David’s request concerns Saul’s daughter, making the name of her father sound within the demand.
ALSO GROWS
Sha’ul: Asked for; the name Saul.
שָׁאוּל
The shared root links David’s request for Michal with the name of the father named in that request.
she’elah: A request or question.
שְׁאֵלָה
This branch keeps the verse’s demand within the language of asking, even as its terms control whether David’s face may be seen.
פָּנַי
panai lifnei
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
To turn or face toward.
“face; before” in this verse is panai lifnei. The Hebrew words for “my face” and “before” belong to the same word family. English separates them, while the verse repeats the language of facing and being before someone as it makes encounter conditional on Michal’s arrival.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
“See my face” names access to David’s presence, not merely the sight of a face.
lifnei: Before; in front of.
לִפְנֵי
The phrase “except thou first” uses this related word for “before,” joining the condition to the face-language that frames the sentence.
THE PATTERN
Access to a promised relationship or encounter is placed behind a named prior condition.
And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.THE THREAD
And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.The word “asked” shares the שאל root with David’s “I require,” and Saul’s name, Sha’ul, carries the sense “asked for.” The people asked for a king here; in the present verse, David’s demand names Saul’s daughter as the condition of a covenant.
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