What Does 2 Samuel 3:14 Mean in the King James?
And David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth Saul’s son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of 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
David’s messengers are sent with a demand over Michal, and the Hebrew verb for sending also branches into sending away and release, making movement press against the verse’s language of possession.
THE MEANING
David’s claim reaches Ish-bosheth through messengers: he names Michal as his wife and demands her return, citing the hundred Philistine foreskins he paid. Michal appears as the object of an agreement between men; this verse records no answer from her. Its blunt price keeps the violence inside the sentence, without dressing it up as romance.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayyishlaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
שלח (shalach): send out or dispatch; in related forms, send away or release.
“sent” in this verse is vayyishlaḥ. Here the verb describes David dispatching messengers; it does not itself say that Michal is released, since his demand uses תְּנָה־לִי (tenah-li, “give her to me”). Yet the same root can name sending someone away or releasing them, creating an unsettling echo around Michal’s contested return.
ALSO GROWS
shillēaḥ: send away, dismiss, or release
שִׁלֵּחַ
This form shares the consonants שלח and brings the sense of release into the family of the verb translated “sent.”
shillūaḥ: sending away or dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This noun keeps the same root consonants and makes the act of sending away explicit.
אֵרַשְׂתִּי
ʾērāśtî
GROWS FROM
ארש
ארשׂ (ʾāraś): betroth, make a formal marriage pledge.
The verb names a pledged marriage bond, which David invokes alongside the bride-price. The root gives “espoused” the force of a formal betrothal claim, while the verse leaves Michal’s own words unreported.
ALSO GROWS
ʾērāś: betroth
אֵרַשׂ
This is the betrothal verb in its lexical form, sharing the root consonants א־ר־שׂ.
me'orāsāh: a betrothed woman
מְאֹרָשָׂה
This feminine form retains the same root consonants and names a woman by her betrothal status.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
דוד (dōd): beloved; the same Hebrew word also has a kinship sense, “uncle.”
David’s name carries the sense of “beloved.” Here that name stands beside a claim that treats Michal as something to be returned, letting affection in the name and possession in the demand remain sharply together.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: beloved; also uncle
דּוֹד
The word shares all three consonants with David’s name and carries its traditional sense of beloved.
dōdîm: loves or expressions of affection
דּוֹדִים
This plural form preserves the root consonants and makes the family’s language of love explicit.
THE PATTERN
Sending turns intention into movement: a messenger carries a demand, someone is sent away, or a witness is commissioned.
And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.The Hebrew root שָׁלַח (shalach, “send or release”) appears here in “sent” and in the command rendered “Let my people go.” That shared root makes release and dispatch one linguistic motion, sharpening the tension around who can send, hold, or return Michal.
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