What Does 2 Samuel 5:7 Mean in the King James?
Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.
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
The Hebrew word for Zion’s “stronghold” shares its root with hunting, while David’s verb is “capture”: the fortress is already inside the language of pursuit.
THE MEANING
When a defended place is seized, its new holder can reshape what it is called: Zion is identified as David’s city. The verb translated “took” means capture, and “stronghold” carries the root of hunting, so defense and pursuit sit in the same field of language. The verse leaves the violence visible: the city’s new identity follows its seizure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A fortified place is not invulnerable simply because it is called a stronghold; this verse says it can be seized and claimed.
THE ROOT
מְצֻדַת
metsudat
GROWS FROM
צוד
ṣûḏ
hunt, chase, capture
“strong hold” in this verse is metsudat. The fortress word grows from a root for hunting, chasing, and capturing, so its defensive force carries an echo of pursuit. The root also names game and nets, holding the pursuer, the enclosure, and the captured thing close together.
ALSO GROWS
ṣayiḏ: hunting; game or prey
צַיִד
The word family names both pursuit and what is pursued, bringing the stronghold’s root into tension with its defensive sense.
māṣôḏ: net, snare, or hunting apparatus
מָצוֹד
The same root can name a device that catches, joining pursuit with enclosure.
וַיִּלְכֹּד
wayyilkod
GROWS FROM
לכד
l-k-d
catch, seize, capture
“took” in this verse is wayyilkod. The verb used here means to capture or seize, so the action names an act of conquest. Its passive form means to be caught, keeping captor and captured within one root family and leaving the transfer of power visible.
ALSO GROWS
lāḵaḏ: to catch, seize, or capture
לָכַד
This base form makes the force of David’s action explicit.
nilkaḏ: to be caught or captured
נִלְכַּד
The passive form shows the same root from the position of the one seized.
דָּוִד
Dāwîḏ
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
beloved; affection and kinship
David’s name is linked with the root of belovedness, so “the city of David” attaches a relational name to the captured place. After the clause of seizure, the text identifies Zion through a human bond-name, holding conquest and belonging in one line.
ALSO GROWS
dōḏ: beloved; also uncle or close male kin
דּוֹד
This relational word shares the root linked to David’s name.
dōḏîm: love or caresses
דּוֹדִים
The root also names affection, giving “the city of David” a relational resonance beyond its geography.
THE PATTERN
A fortified place offers real defense, but scripture shows that defense does not make its possession permanent.
Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.THE THREAD
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.The same Hebrew noun, מְצוּדָה (metsudah, “stronghold” or “fortress”), appears in both verses. Here it names a place David captures; in the psalm, David names the LORD as his fortress, letting the word hold a captured stronghold beside a source of refuge.
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