What Does 2 Samuel 5:11 Mean in the King James?
And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house.
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, whose name carries belovedness, receives a bayit, a word for both dwelling and household, so the house is shelter with lineage already in its vocabulary.
THE MEANING
A place of stature takes shape through provision from beyond its owner and hands skilled at shaping different materials. David receives a dwelling through another king’s initiative, workers, and gifts; what stands as one house depends on many contributions.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a secure place must be entirely self-made gives way: this house takes shape through resources and skilled work that come from beyond David.
THE ROOT
בַּיִת
bayit
GROWS FROM
בית
House, dwelling, household.
The same word can name a building and the household or line it contains. David’s house is a dwelling here, while bayit also gives the word a wider frame: a place can hold a people and a continuing lineage.
ALSO GROWS
batim: Houses; the plural of bayit.
בָּתִּים
The word first holds the concrete sense of dwellings built from materials.
beit David: The house or household of David; also the Davidic line.
בֵּית דָּוִד
The same word for this dwelling can name the enduring household associated with David.
שָׁלַח
shālaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, send, release.
“sent” in this verse is shālaḥ. The verse’s action carries the sense of sending forth: the house begins with what moves from Hiram toward David. The root can also carry the sense of release, as provision leaves one hand and becomes available elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Shiloah.
שִׁלֹחַ
The same root appears in the name of water, keeping the idea of sending linked with something that flows outward.
shilluach: Sending away; release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This form shows the root’s outward motion as something being let go from one’s keeping.
חָרָשֵׁי עֵץ
ḥārāšê ʿēṣ
GROWS FROM
חרשׁ
Work, shape, or craft material.
“carpenters and masons” in this verse is ḥārāšê ʿēṣ. English names two trades, but Hebrew repeats one craft-word and changes only what the hands shape. The house depends on one kind of practiced making applied to different materials.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārāšê ʿēṣ: Craftspeople who work wood.
חָרָשֵׁי עֵץ
Their work shapes the timber into part of the dwelling.
ḥārāšê ʾeven: Craftspeople who work stone.
חָרָשֵׁי אֶבֶן
The same craft-word names hands shaping another material for the same house.
THE PATTERN
A house takes shape as distinct materials and contributors are brought into one shared structure.
And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.The same Hebrew word, bayit, lies beneath both houses, but its scale changes: here Hiram’s gifts make David a dwelling, while the LORD promises to make David a house. The later verse opens the word from architecture toward a household and enduring line.
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