Bible Strands
2 Samuel 14:14
For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A widow from Tekoah, sent by Joab, speaks to King David, using a parable of a banished son to press him to recall Absalom. She has just accused David of convicting himself (v.13) and is about to state her own request (v.15).
The words — The infinitive absolute מוֹת (môt, "certainly die") precedes the finite verb נָמוּת, intensifying the certainty of death. נִגָּרִים (niggārîm, "spilled") is the participle of a verb for liquid poured out, marking the image as one of total, irreversible loss.
The thread — Hebrews 9:27 states the same human limit in plain terms: man is appointed to die once. Job 30:23 echoes the finality — being brought down to the place appointed for all the living.
Why it lands — The verse sets up an asymmetry: human death is a closed door, but God's design is to open one. It asks the reader to notice that the woman is holding David up to the standard she attributes to God — to devise a way back rather than accept the banishment as final.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
Cross-references
- Job 30:23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- Numbers 35:28 because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.
- Hebrews 9:27 Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
- Numbers 35:15 These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
- Numbers 35:25 The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
- Job 34:15 all flesh would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.
- Job 14:7 For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.
- Job 14:14 When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.
- Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.