What Does 1 Kings 10:14 Mean?
And the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
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
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,THE KEY
The verse gives abundance a weight, making what gathers around a life visible and countable.
THE MEANING
You meet abundance here in material terms: six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold arriving in one year. The verse makes accumulation visible in its scale, beyond the vague idea of wealth.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁקַל
mishqal
GROWS FROM
שקל
To weigh or weigh out.
The word for weight grows from a root meaning to weigh, so the verse makes wealth something measured in substance. The same root can describe the unit being weighed and the act of weighing, joining what arrives with the measure applied to it.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: To weigh or weigh out.
שָׁקַל
This verb shows the action beneath the gold’s stated weight: abundance is made measurable.
sheqel: A shekel, a unit of weight and later a unit of money.
שֶׁקֶל
The shekel preserves the root’s link between weighing something and assigning it a material value.
THE PATTERN
Scripture measures material abundance against standards beyond its quantity.
Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.It cannot be given for gold, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.And he said to them, Watch, and guard yourselves against grasping, for a person's life does not lie in the overflow of what they hold.THE THREAD
Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.The same Hebrew root שקל (sh-q-l), meaning to weigh, stands beneath the weight of Solomon’s gold and the just weight in Proverbs. The connection opens the measure of abundance into a question of balance: weight can describe both how much arrives and whether the measure is true.
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