What Does Joshua 2:20 Mean in the King James?
And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear.
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 oath’s protection has a boundary: “quit” means clear of liability once its secrecy condition is broken.
THE MEANING
A promise can bind fully while still having a stated condition: protection stands as long as the shared matter stays undisclosed. The words you bind yourself to do not float free of their terms; disclosure changes what remains owed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An oath binds no matter what happens. This verse shows that its own terms can mark where its claim ends.
THE ROOT
נְקִיִּים
neqiyyim
GROWS FROM
נקה
n-q-h
Be clear, clean, or free of guilt and liability.
The word translated “quit” carries the sense of being clear of a claim, not simply escaping a consequence. The oath’s limit is expressed as a state of clearness: once its condition is broken, they are no longer liable under it.
ALSO GROWS
nāqî: Clean, innocent, or clear.
נָקִי
This same word describes someone free of guilt, showing how “quit” here means clear of an obligation.
yenaqqeh: He will clear or acquit.
יְנַקֶּה
In Exodus 34:7, the same root appears in “will by no means clear the guilty,” showing that the root can describe release from liability.
דְּבָרֵנוּ
devarenu
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; a spoken word, matter, or thing.
What the KJV calls “our business” is literally “our word” or “our matter.” The verse joins the thing shared between them to the act of making it known: their word remains protected only while it stays unspoken to others.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun is the root of “our business,” holding speech and the matter being discussed together.
dibbēr: Spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root shows speech as the act that can expose the matter and end the oath’s protection.
שְׁבֻעָתֵךְ
shevu'atek
GROWS FROM
שבע
sh-b-ʿ
Swear or place someone under an oath.
The verse uses this root for both the oath itself and the act of making them swear it. The obligation and the act that imposes it are bound together in the wording, while the condition sets the boundary of that bond.
ALSO GROWS
shevu'ah: Oath.
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun names the bond that can be ended if the matter is disclosed.
hishbia: Made someone swear or put someone under oath.
הִשְׁבִּיעַ
This causative form echoes “which thou hast made us to swear,” linking the promise to the act that bound them.
THE PATTERN
An oath binds through its stated terms, and those terms define what must be kept.
If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the LORD thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.THE THREAD
And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again.Genesis 24:8 uses נָקִי (nāqî, clear or free of liability) for release from an oath when its stated condition fails. The shared root makes the structure visible: an oath can bind fully while its own terms mark the point where its claim ends.
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