What Does 1 Kings 10:25 Mean?
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.
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 they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.THE KEY
The gifts are not a single display of wealth: the verse places them in a cycle that returns each year.
THE MEANING
Each person brings a gift, and the giving returns year after year. Precious vessels, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules all enter this recurring exchange.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that this abundance is a one-time windfall: it comes again each year.
THE ROOT
שָׁנָה
shanah
GROWS FROM
שׁנה
sh-n-h
Repeat, do again; also change or renew.
The word for “year” is linked to the root of repetition and change. The phrase “year by year” therefore carries the sense of a cycle returning: these gifts belong to a rhythm that comes around again.
ALSO GROWS
shanah: Year; a recurring annual cycle.
שָׁנָה
This is the word repeated in the verse’s “year by year,” making the return explicit.
mishneh: Second, double, or a copy.
מִשְׁנֶה
This branch carries the sense of what comes again or is repeated, echoing the returning cycle of gifts.
THE PATTERN
Giving and provision appear in recurring rhythms, returning with each cycle.
All the days of the earth, sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not stop.And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of every fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the LORD;On the first day of the week, let each of you lay something by at his own side, storing it up, as his way has gone well for him, so that no gatherings are made when I come.THE THREAD
And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of every fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the LORD;Nehemiah uses שָׁנָה (shanah, “year”) in the same “year by year” phrase. The shared root שׁנה (sh-n-h, “repeat; do again”) links both passages through gifts brought with the return of each cycle.
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