What Does 1 Kings 10:19 Mean?
The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back. There were hands on either side of the place of the sitting, and two lions stood beside the hands.
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
The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.THE KEY
The throne’s six “steps” are named as six ascents, so the path toward authority is built into the word itself.
THE MEANING
You see authority take shape as six ascents leading to a seat, handlike supports marking the sitting place, and two lions standing beside them. The throne’s power is made visible through its approach, its place of rest, and the figures at its sides.
THE ROOT
מַעֲלוֹת
maʿalot
GROWS FROM
עָלָה
ʿ-l-h
To go up; to ascend.
The six steps are called “ascents,” keeping the upward movement audible in the word. The same root names an עֹלָה (ʿolah), an offering that rises; the Hebrew preserves that motion in both words.
ALSO GROWS
maʿalah: An ascent or step.
מַעֲלָה
This singular form makes the verse’s steps part of a larger idea of rising toward a place.
ʿolah: An ascending offering, traditionally rendered “burnt offering.”
עֹלָה
The shared root carries the image of going up into a different setting, showing how ascent remains present beneath distinct English words.
יָדוֹת
yadot
GROWS FROM
יָד
Hand; this is a two-consonant body-part noun, not a regular three-consonant verbal root.
The supports beside the seat are called “hands” in Hebrew, so the throne’s resting place is framed by a bodily image of support. The word can also extend to a side or to power, connecting what holds the sitter to the authority seated there.
ALSO GROWS
yad: Hand.
יָד
This is the concrete word beneath the supports, making their role as the throne’s arms visible.
beyad: “In the hand of,” often meaning under someone’s power or control.
בְּיַד
This idiom extends “hand” toward power, echoing how the throne’s physical supports frame the seat of rule.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes sovereignty visible through a distinct seat, its elevation, and the figures stationed around it.
For there sit thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord settled upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.The first living creature is like a lion, and the second like a calf, and the third has the face of a human, and the fourth is like a flying eagle.THE THREAD
And you shall not go up to my altar by steps, so that your nakedness is not uncovered upon it.The “steps” in both verses are מַעֲלוֹת (maʿalot), from עָלָה (ʿalah), “to ascend.” The shared word links the rising approach to the king’s seat with a passage that regulates ascent to the altar.
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