What Does 1 Kings 1:40 Mean?
And all the people came up after him, and the people whirled in a great whirling, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth split open with the sound of them.
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
And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.THE KEY
The people’s shared joy is pictured as a sound that splits the earth open.
THE MEANING
When joy is shared, it becomes audible and embodied, moving through people, instruments, and the space around them. The verse gives that communal sound the force of an opening, as if the ground itself splits beneath it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that joy is only private and weightless; here it gathers bodies, makes music, and seems to alter the ground beneath a crowd.
THE ROOT
וַתִּבָּקַע
wattibbāqaʿ
GROWS FROM
בקע
b-q-ʿ
To split, cleave, or break open.
The root means split open, so the land is not merely shaken by the sound; it is pictured as breaking open beneath it. A related word for a broad valley carries the image of an opening in the landscape.
ALSO GROWS
bāqaʿ: To split or break open.
בָּקַע
This is the verb behind “rent,” giving the celebration the image of an opening in the earth.
biqʿāh: A valley or broad plain.
בִּקְעָה
This landscape word from the same root evokes an opening in the land, linking the verse’s rupture with space made open.
וּשְׂמֵחִים
usmeḥim
GROWS FROM
שׂמח
ś-m-ḥ
To rejoice or be glad.
“rejoiced” in this verse is usmeḥim. Hebrew uses the same root for the people’s rejoicing and for the “great joy” that follows. The repeated seed makes gladness both something they do and something that fills the scene.
ALSO GROWS
śāmaḥ: To rejoice or be glad.
שָׂמַח
This verb names the people’s shared action, not only an inward feeling.
śimḥāh: Joy or gladness.
שִׂמְחָה
This noun repeats the root in “great joy,” echoing the rejoicing as the substance of the moment.
THE PATTERN
Shared rejoicing becomes a public sound that gathers many voices into one event.
Shout to the LORD, all the earth. Burst open, ring out, and make music.And as he drew near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the learners began to rejoice and praise God with a great voice, for all the works of strength they had perceived.And I hear the voice of a great crowd, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah! For the LORD God who holds all governs.THE THREAD
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD made the sea go back by a strong breath of the east all that night, and made the sea dry ground, and the waters were split.The Hebrew verb behind “rent” here and “divided” in Exodus comes from the same root, בקע (bāqaʿ), meaning to split open. At the sea, the split opens a passage through water; in the procession, the image is the earth opening beneath the people’s sound.
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