What Does 1 Kings 10:22 Mean?
For the king had ships of Tarshish at sea with the ships of Hiram. Once in three years came the ships of Tarshish, carrying gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
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
For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.THE KEY
Even the king’s riches reach him as cargo carried across the sea.
THE MEANING
Gold, silver, ivory, and animals arrive by ship in a cycle that takes three years. The king’s abundance depends on ships, a partner, and what can be carried across distance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that royal abundance is created alone or is always at hand: here it arrives through another fleet and a long wait.
THE ROOT
נֹשְׂאֵת
nōśeʾt
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“carrying” in this verse is nōśeʾt. The Hebrew verb behind “bringing” is נָשָׂא (nasaʾ), to carry or bear. Its branches include מַשָּׂא (massaʾ), a load or burden, so the verse presents royal abundance as weight borne across distance; נָשִׂיא (nasiʾ), a leader or prince, is also traditionally linked to the sense of one raised up.
ALSO GROWS
massaʾ: Load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
The fleet’s cargo is a load borne over the sea; the same root also names what someone carries as a burden.
nasiʾ: Leader or prince; traditionally connected with “one raised up.”
נָשִׂיא
This branch brings the root’s sense of lifting into the royal setting of the verse.
THE PATTERN
A ruler’s reach is pictured through what distant hands carry toward the center of power.
And they brought every man his gift, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments, and weapons, and spices, horses, and mules, a portion year by year.The kings of Tarshish and the coastlands return a tribute, and the kings of Sheba and Seba draw near with gifts.And the nations of the delivered walk by its light, and the kings of the earth carry their weight and honor into it.THE THREAD
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.The Hebrew verb נָשָׂא (nasaʾ), “carry” or “bear,” describes the ships bringing wealth here and the figure bearing griefs in Isaiah. One root holds both the cargo transported across distance and the human weight borne.
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