What Does 1 Kings 10:11 Mean?
And the ships of Hiram also, that carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir great plenty of almug wood, and weighty stones.
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 the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.THE KEY
The word for “precious” also carries rarity and esteem, so these stones bear honor as well as price.
THE MEANING
This verse holds distance, labor, and abundance together: valuable things become present through a route that carries them in. Gold, timber, and stones show provision taking tangible form through movement and connections beyond one person’s reach.
THE ROOT
יְקָרָה
yeqarah
GROWS FROM
יקר
To be precious, rare, costly, or highly esteemed.
“weighty stones” in this verse is yeqarah. יְקָרָה (yeqarah) describes the stones through יקר, a root whose range includes rarity, cost, and honor. The English word “precious” can sound like a price alone; the Hebrew also carries the esteem that sets something apart.
ALSO GROWS
yaqar: Precious, costly, rare
יָקָר
The root joins high value with scarcity: what is precious may also be seldom found.
yeqar: Honor, worth, esteem
יְקָר
This branch shows that the stones carry esteem as well as material value.
הֵבִיא
hevi
GROWS FROM
בוא
To come, enter, or arrive; in this verb form, to cause to come or bring.
“brought” in this verse is hevi. The verb is a causative form of בוא, “come”: the fleet makes the goods arrive. The line pictures what is far away crossing into reach, rather than wealth as a static possession.
ALSO GROWS
bo: Come, enter, arrive
בּוֹא
The root’s basic movement is arrival into a place.
hevi: Bring, cause to come
הֵבִיא
This is the form used here: the fleet carries what is distant into reach.
THE PATTERN
What is precious becomes visible in what is sought, carried, and recognized as having worth.
And the gold of that land is good, and there is bdellium and the onyx stone.She is more precious than rubies, and nothing you long for can be made equal to her.Who, having found one pearl of great worth, went and sold all that he had and bought it.THE THREAD
She is more precious than rubies, and nothing you long for can be made equal to her.Proverbs 3:15 uses יְקָרָה (yeqarah, “precious”) from יקר (yaqar, “rare, valuable, esteemed”) for wisdom’s worth. The same root links the gemstones arriving here to a measure that places wisdom above them, so the cargo points beyond its price.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us