2 Samuel 14:18

Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!” “Let my lord the king speak,” she replied.

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — The king addresses the woman from Tekoa immediately after she blesses his discernment. He demands she answer his next question without concealment, and she yields to his authority by inviting him to speak.

The words — תְכַחֲדִי (te.kha.cha.Di) literally means "you hide" or "do not conceal," intensified by אַל־ נָא (al-na) into a strict prohibition. הַמֶּלֶךְ (ha.Melekh) identifies the speaker as the reigning monarch asserting his right to unfiltered disclosure.

The thread — This command to withhold nothing appears when Eli demands Samuel not conceal God's message (1 Samuel 3:17) and when Zedekiah warns Jeremiah that officials will demand he reveal his words to the king (Jeremiah 38:25).

Why it lands — The text establishes that royal authority demands transparency, while the immediate context shows that such demands often mask human orchestration behind a posture of divine consultation.

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

Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

Cross-references

1 Samuel 3:17 “What was the message He gave you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God punish you, and ever so severely, if you hide from me anything He said to you.”
Jeremiah 38:14 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance to the house of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” said the king to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”
Jeremiah 38:25 If the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and they come and demand of you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,’