# 2 Kings 14:10



## Scot (Nov 5, 2004)

O.k., I don't know what kind of reaction I'm going to get to this but it is meant to be a serious question. I posted it on another forum and it was deleted in about 2 minutes. Here goes:

In our family devotions the other night we read 2 Kings chapter 14 (we're going through Old Testament history). In verse 10 is the phrase "him that pisseth against the wall"

This phrase is also seen in 1 Samuel 25:22 & 34, I Kings 16:11, 1 Kings 21:21 & 2 Kings 9:8. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this. What's the meaning of this phrase and what is God teaching us by it?

I hope this doesn't get deleted from this forum (although I'm not quite sure why it would).


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Nov 5, 2004)

As far as I know, it was a proverb that meant "those who are powerful or weak." David is saying he will destroy them all - even those who are great. Its like slang.

[Edited on 11-6-2004 by webmaster]


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## Scott Bushey (Nov 6, 2004)

I'm gonna agree with Matt here. The term contrasts the youth; someone of strength and the elderly, invalid. The urination stream of the youth is strong. Even in this day it is mentioned in the same light. As men get older and dicrepid, the prostate grows or swells; urination is restricted, even becoming difficult to create a stream. "pissing" against a wall is disastrous in the fact that one would become soaked.

2Ki 9:8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel: 

The verse above renders the contrast. The invalid and the youth......

Here is parallel renditions:

For the whole house of Ahab shall perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. WEB

For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel. ASV

For the family of Ahab will come to an end; every male of Ahab's family will be cut off, he who is shut up and he who goes free in Israel. BBE

And the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, and him that is shut up and left in Israel. DBY

For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel: KJV

For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab the males, and him that is shut up and left in Israel: WBS

For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel. JPS

and perished hath all the house of Ahab, and I have cut off to Ahab those sitting on the wall, and restrained, and left, in Israel, YLT

[Edited on 11-6-2004 by Scott Bushey]

[Edited on 11-6-2004 by Scott Bushey]


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## Scot (Nov 6, 2004)

Thanks gentlemen.


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## beej6 (Jul 5, 2006)

(I came across this thread looking for another Kings question.)

Do any of your translations translate these verses similarly to the KJV? I know this is a famous verse for *not* being translated correctly. How about footnotes, explanatory notes?


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## py3ak (Jul 5, 2006)

There is a similar expression in Icelandic. There, it simply means "the males". My mom says it doesn't sounds vulgar in Icelandic.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 6, 2006)

Matthew Poole on 1 Sam. 25.22:



> Any that pisseth against the wall, i.e. any of the males, for they only do so; and of them this phrase is manifestly understood, 1 Kings 14:10; 1 Kings 21:21; 2 Kings 9:8; and men not wholly barbarous have generally spared women in such cases.


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