What Does 1 Kings 10:28 Mean?
And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn. The king's traders took the linen yarn at a price.
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 Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.THE KEY
The same “coming out of Egypt” language that can name deliverance also describes horses entering a king’s supply.
THE MEANING
Royal abundance arrives through a source, a route, merchants, and a price. The movement out of Egypt can carry goods into a throne’s power, just as the language of coming out can describe deliverance. Source, movement, and cost all remain visible in what the king receives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that power or abundance appears on its own: what the king possesses has a source, a route, and a price.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ר
ts-r-r
To be narrow or press in; constriction.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim carries the sound and shape of metzar, a narrow place. Here, what comes out of that constriction becomes royal stock, placing the movement toward spaciousness beside a king’s power to accumulate.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow; constricted.
צַר
It reveals the narrowing carried in the name Mitzrayim, the source from which Solomon’s horses come.
metzar: A strait or narrow place.
מֵצַר
It makes the land’s name echo the condition of constriction from which something can be brought out.
מוֹצָא
motsa
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
y-ts-ʾ
To go out, emerge, or bring forth.
Motsa, an ‘outgoing’ or ‘bringing out,’ grows from the same root as yatsa, ‘go out.’ The verse uses this exit-language for horses entering a throne’s supply, showing that being brought out does not by itself mean deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
yotse: One who goes out or emerges.
יוֹצֵא
It shares the root’s movement outward, making the horses’ departure from Egypt part of the verse’s central image.
yetsi’ah: An exit or departure.
יְצִיאָה
It names the outward movement that can carry people toward freedom or goods into a king’s possession.
מְחִיר
mechir
GROWS FROM
מ־כ־ר
m-k-r
To sell; to transfer something through sale.
Mechir, ‘price,’ is tied to the root for selling, so the verse keeps exchange attached to royal abundance. What reaches the king is neither source-less nor cost-free: merchants and price remain in the line.
ALSO GROWS
makhar: To sell.
מָכַר
It exposes the transaction beneath the word ‘price.’
mimkar: A sale or something sold.
מִמְכָּר
It links the price to the goods transferred, keeping the exchange visible in the king’s supply.
THE PATTERN
The language of coming out exposes what leaves a constricting place and who receives it.
And it came to be on this very bone of the day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.And I hear another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, so that you do not share in her shortcomings, and that you do not receive from her blows.THE THREAD
And it came to be on this very bone of the day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.Both verses use the יצא (yatsa) root, ‘go out’ or ‘bring forth.’ Exodus names a people brought out of Egypt; Kings uses the same movement for horses entering Solomon’s supply, so the shared root makes the shift from deliverance to royal acquisition visible.
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