What Does 1 Kings 10:10 Mean?
And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and very great store of spices, and weighty stones. No more came such abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.
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 she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.THE KEY
The queen’s abundance becomes undeniable when it is placed in another’s hands.
THE MEANING
You encounter abundance here as something made visible through giving: gold, fragrant spices, and precious stones pass from one person’s hands to another. Its scale is unmatched, so what is shared becomes the measure by which this abundance is known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what leaves your hands simply vanishes is undone here: giving is what makes this abundance visible and memorable.
THE ROOT
וַתִּתֵּן
vattitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, put, or set in place.
“gave” in this verse is vattitten. The verb also means “put” or “set,” so the queen’s gift is wealth placed before another person. The noun מַתָּנָה (mattanah, gift) grows from the same seed, linking the act of giving to the thing given.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The gift noun shares the root of “gave,” joining the queen’s action to the abundance she places in the king’s hands.
natun: Given, set, or put in place.
נָתוּן
This form makes the root’s sense of placement visible: what is given is set before someone to receive.
THE PATTERN
Generosity lets abundance move outward, where its effects can multiply and return as overflow.
The living soul of blessing is made fat, and the one who waters is himself watered.Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and spilling over, they will give into your lap. For with the same measure you measure out, it will be measured back to you.And God is able to make all favor overflow toward you, so that you, always holding all you need in everything, may overflow into every good work.THE THREAD
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should hold the strength to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come from you, and from your hand have we given to you.The same נָתַן (natan, give or place) root appears in the queen’s gift and in “of thine own have we given thee.” This connection opens giving as something that moves onward from what has already been received.
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