What Does 1 Kings 10:16 Mean?

And King Solomon made two hundred shields of beaten gold. Six hundred shekels of gold went up on one shield.

1 Kings 10:16 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.

THE KEY

Here royal splendor takes the shape of shields, and the verse makes its price exact: six hundred shekels of gold for each.

THE MEANING

The verse meets you where abundance becomes a visible sign of rule: gold is shaped into shields and measured at six hundred shekels apiece. Security is given a weight and displayed through what the ruler can put into it.

THE ROOT

שְׁלֹמֹה

Shelomoh

GROWS FROM

ש־ל־ם

sh-l-m

To be whole or complete; wholeness and peace.

Solomon’s name belongs to the same root family as shalom, wholeness. The verse places that name beside shields made of immense, carefully measured wealth, letting royal wholeness and visible security sit together in the same image.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.

שָׁלוֹם

This is the familiar root-family word carried in Solomon’s name; it brings the idea of wholeness into the verse’s royal image.

shalem: Whole, complete, intact.

שָׁלֵם

This adjective makes the root’s sense of wholeness concrete, adding depth to the name beside the shields that signify security.

THE PATTERN

Power becomes visible when wealth is shaped into objects that promise security.

And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold. Three pounds of gold went up on one shield, and the king set them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

1 Kings 10:17 · SDVThe next verse repeats the pattern, measuring the gold in each shield and showing the objects placed in the royal house.

And Hezekiah had very great riches and weight, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for every vessel of desire.

2 Chronicles 32:27 · SDVHere a ruler’s riches become visible in stored treasure and shields, joining abundance with the signs of security.

Some lean their full weight on chariots, and some on horses; but we remember in the nature of the LORD our God.

Psalm 20:7 · SDVThe verse names military objects as places where people locate security, exposing the trust that visible defenses can carry.

THE THREAD

Ask for the wholeness of Jerusalem; those who love you are at ease.

Psalm 122:6 · SDV

The word translated “peace” is shalom, from the same ⁨ש־ל־ם⁩ root family carried by Solomon’s name. The psalm opens the name’s sense of wholeness beside this verse’s golden shields, giving security a deeper dimension than visible defense.

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