What Does 2 Samuel 4:3 Mean in the King James?
And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there until this day.)
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
Escape can end movement while the language still names you as an outsider.
THE MEANING
You can reach somewhere and remain a sojourner there: arrival settles your location without necessarily settling your belonging. The verse keeps that condition open through “until this day,” making displacement a status that can continue after flight has ended.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that reaching a place of refuge automatically means you belong there.
THE ROOT
גָּרִים
gārîm
GROWS FROM
גור
To sojourn; to dwell as an outsider.
“sojourners” in this verse is gārîm. The word names people who dwell somewhere without native belonging, not people merely passing through. The root holds dwelling and outsider status together, so their flight can be over while their sojourning continues.
ALSO GROWS
gēr: A resident outsider or sojourner.
גֵּר
This related form makes clear that the word describes a status of belonging, not just movement between places.
lāgūr: To reside as a sojourner.
לָגוּר
The verbal form holds staying and displacement together, just as the verse places them in Gittaim while still naming them sojourners.
THE PATTERN
A change of place can end a journey without ending the condition of being a stranger.
And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.THE THREAD
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.The Hebrew word behind “stranger” is גֵּר (gēr), from the same root family as גָּרִים here. The psalm holds nearness and outsider status together, sharpening how a person can be present somewhere and still remain a sojourner.
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