What Does 2 Samuel 8:14 Mean in the King James?
And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.
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 king who makes Edom his servants is himself dependent on the LORD’s deliverance wherever he goes.
THE MEANING
Your reach over others and your own passage through danger are not the same thing: the verse sets David’s garrisons and Edom’s imposed service beside the LORD’s deliverance of him wherever he goes. Command over others does not secure your own path.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that control over other people can make you invulnerable.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹשַׁע
wayyoshaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver, bringing someone out of danger and constriction into room.
The verb translated “preserved” names the LORD’s action as deliverance. The same root connects this moment to deliverance itself and to the one who delivers, showing that David’s path depends on being brought through.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
It names the rescue that the verb says the LORD gives David.
moshia: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
It names the one who acts to bring someone out, revealing the LORD as the source of David’s passage.
עֲבָדִים
ʿavadim
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve; in this form, people placed in service.
“servants” in this verse is ʿavadim. The verse describes Edom’s subjection as service under David after garrisons are placed throughout the land. The repeated “all Edom” makes the reach of that imposed order explicit.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavad: To work or serve
עָבַד
The verb shows the labor and service contained in the status assigned to Edom.
ʿavodah: Work or service
עֲבוֹדָה
This related noun makes visible the service built into the verse’s account of David’s rule.
THE PATTERN
Command over others does not secure a person’s path; the LORD’s deliverance does.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.THE THREAD
The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.The words “salvation” and “savest” here come from the same ישע root as the verb translated “preserved” in 2 Samuel 8:14. This verse makes explicit what the brief account compresses: David’s rule over others does not remove his own need for deliverance.
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