What Does 1 Kings 1:50 Mean?
And Adonijah feared from the face of Solomon, and arose, and walked, and gripped the horns of the altar.
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 Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.THE KEY
The altar’s horns become refuge he can physically clutch: fear turns sanctuary into something held in his hands.
THE MEANING
When power turns toward you as a threat, fear can move your body before you know the outcome: you rise, flee, and grip what looks like shelter. The altar’s horns make refuge a physical hold, and the scene leaves the answer suspended in the next word.
THE ROOT
וַיַּחֲזֵק
wayyaḥăzēq
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥ-z-q
To be strong or make strong; in this form, to seize or hold firmly.
“gripped the horns of the altar” in this verse is wayyaḥăzēq. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of strength in the act of taking hold. The grip is an act of force, not a passing touch.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong or firm.
חָזַק
The same root’s sense of firmness gives weight to the way he grips the altar.
heḥĕzîq: Seize or hold firmly.
הֶחֱזִיק
This form links strength directly with the physical act of grasping.
קַרְנוֹת
qarnot
GROWS FROM
קרן
q-r-n
Horn or projecting point; the same word family also carries the sense of radiating or shining.
The horns are raised projections he can grip; the same consonants also appear in a word for shining rays. English “horns” hides this broader image of what projects outward.
ALSO GROWS
qeren: A horn or projecting point.
קֶרֶן
This is the singular form behind the altar’s graspable horns.
qāran: Shine or send out rays.
קָרַן
The shared root links the horn’s projection with radiating outward, adding depth to the image of the altar’s raised points.
הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
hamizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The altar’s name comes from the verb for sacrifice, so the object he grips is named by the act associated with it. His refuge is a specific place of sacrifice, not generic cover.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: Offer in sacrifice or slaughter for sacrifice.
זָבַח
This verb is the action that gives the altar its name.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice or sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
The related noun keeps the altar connected to the ritual act and meal of sacrifice.
THE PATTERN
Refuge is sought while danger is still active; reaching for shelter is an appeal made within the threat.
But if a man comes boiling upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile, you take him from my altar, that he may die.For in the day of harm he stores me away in his booth; he hides me in the hiding place of his tent; he lifts me high upon a rock.So that through two unshifting deeds, in which it is without power for God to lie, we might have a strong comfort, we who have fled for refuge to grip the hope lying before us.THE THREAD
Then news came to Joab, for Joab had bent toward Adonijah, though he had not bent toward Absalom. And Joab fled to the tent of the LORD, and gripped the horns of the altar.Joab’s flight repeats the Hebrew verb חזק (ḥazaq), “take hold,” and the same grasp of the altar’s horns. The repeated gesture makes this a recognizable plea for refuge under royal threat, while leaving open what follows the grip.
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