What Does 1 Kings 1:27 Mean?
Is this word done by my lord the king, and you have not shown it to your servant, who shall sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not shewed it unto thy servant, who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?THE KEY
The question exposes the gap between an event carried out in the king’s name and a choice the king has actually made known.
THE MEANING
A claim is being made in the king’s name, but the one with authority has not made it known to this servant. The verse exposes the gap between an event that appears to carry authority and an explicit word from authority. Here, knowing comes through disclosure; rank and rumor cannot supply it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruler’s name attached to an outcome does not, by itself, prove the ruler authorized it.
THE ROOT
הוֹדַעְתָּ
hodaʿta
GROWS FROM
ידע
yada
To know, recognize, or perceive; in this verb form, to cause someone to know or make something known.
The word translated “shewed” carries the sense of making the matter known to someone. The question turns on whether the king has actively disclosed his choice, not merely whether events seem to point toward one.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or recognize.
יָדַע
The same root links disclosure to knowing: the servant’s knowledge depends on the matter being made known.
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This branch names what the servant lacks until the king’s choice is disclosed.
hodiʿa: To make known or inform.
הוֹדִיעַ
This is the causative form behind the verse’s “shewed”: someone with knowledge brings another into knowing.
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
To speak; the related noun davar can mean a word, matter, or affair.
Hebrew uses davar for both the matter at hand and a word. The question presses whether this affair carries the king’s own word, or only appears to carry his authority.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
The succession is not just an event; it is a matter whose relation to the king’s word is being questioned.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The shared root brings speech into the matter: the king’s unspoken choice leaves his servant unable to know.
THE PATTERN
Those who serve know what authority intends through disclosure, not by inferring it from events.
For the Lord GOD does nothing, unless he uncovers his secret to his servants the prophets.No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for all that I heard from my Father I have shown you.THE THREAD
The weight of God is to hide a matter; the weight of kings is to search out a matter.Both verses use דָּבָר (davar), meaning “matter” or “word.” Proverbs connects a king’s honor with searching out a matter; here, the servant asks whether the matter has been made known by the king himself.
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