2 Samuel 14:17 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 17. Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD thy God will be with thee.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

2 Samuel 14:17 contributes this particular line to the movement: “Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an…”.

Read It With

2 Samuel 14:4–20

Read 2 Samuel 14:17 with 14:4–20. 2 Samuel 14:17 advances “The Tekoa Parable Draws a Royal Decision” through the concrete textual step “Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an…”. The complete unit establishes this movement: The woman presents a threatened surviving son, secures escalating royal protection, applies the analogy to banished Absalom, and admits Joab's direction.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Keeping “The Tekoa Parable Draws a Royal Decision” as its own unit preserves its agents, moral stakes, and narrative turn before the next movement begins. At 2 Samuel 14:17, “Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an…” supplies this verse's distinct action, speech, image, or interpretive turn.

Follow the Context

The opening of 14:4-20 establishes “The Tekoa Parable Draws a Royal Decision.”
The woman presents a threatened surviving son, secures escalating royal protection, applies the analogy to banished Absalom, and admits Joab's direction.
Verse 20 completes this movement before 14:21-24.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

The narrative does not teach that royal success makes every royal act morally right.

What Remains True

Covenant hope and truthful memory require accountable power, grief that names loss, protection for vulnerable people, and refusal to call political success innocence. In 2 Samuel 14:17, the concrete line “Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.

How It Can Shape Life

Evaluate leadership by truth, consent, restraint, repair, and the treatment of people with less power; preserve evidence and survivor voices instead of protecting a celebrated reputation. Keep 2 Samuel 14:17 inside 14:4–20, preserve the people and costs it names or obscures, and do not convert its wording into royal immunity or a modern political mandate.

Teach It Back

Explain 2 Samuel 14:17's role in 14:4–20. Paraphrase “Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an…”, name the ancient royal or household horizon, state one material uncertainty, keep one vulnerable or affected person visible, and identify one conclusion the verse does not authorize.

Explain the verse in context

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Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read 2 Samuel 14:4–20 — The Tekoa Parable Draws a Royal Decision

Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

2 Samuel 14:17 remains governed by this unit-level limit: Interpreters differ over source layers, chronology, historicity, characterization, textual readings, and whether the court story mainly legitimates, indicts, or holds David in sustained tension. The package states the received movement first and labels reconstructions.

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.

Exact location: 2 Samuel 14:4-20, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Samuel

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 14:4-20

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: 2 Samuel with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.

Exact location: NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 562–563, translation and all translator notes attached to 14:4-20

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record