What Does 1 Kings 11:23 Mean?
And God raised up another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his lord Hadadezer, king of Zobah.
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 God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah, which fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah:THE KEY
The Hebrew says God “raised” an adversary to stand against the ruler, placing opposition within divine agency.
THE MEANING
This verse places a hard claim before you now: opposition can be real and personal, yet still within God’s agency. Rezon has fled his lord, and God raises him as an adversary against that lord. The line names this agency without explaining the purpose of the opposition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that the presence of an adversary means God has lost control; here, God is named as the one who raises him.
THE ROOT
שָׂטָן
satan
GROWS FROM
שׂטן
To oppose or act as an adversary.
“another adversary” in this verse is satan. Here satan names Rezon’s role: one who stands against, not a supernatural being. A related form, sitnah, means accusation or hostility, showing that this opposition carries active resistance rather than mere irritation.
ALSO GROWS
satan: An adversary or accuser.
שָׂטָן
The word identifies Rezon as a human opponent.
sitnah: Accusation or hostility.
שִׂטְנָה
This branch shows the root’s sense of opposition extending into active hostility.
וַיָּקֶם
wayyaqem
GROWS FROM
קום
To rise or stand; in a causative form, to raise or establish.
“raised up” in this verse is wayyaqem. The verb rendered “stirred up” comes from qum, “rise” or “stand.” Hebrew pictures God making an adversary stand against the ruler; the English can sound like inner agitation, while the root highlights a force set in opposition.
ALSO GROWS
qum: To rise or stand.
קוּם
The adversary’s role is made concrete as one who stands against another.
heqim: To raise or establish; to make stand.
הֵקִים
This causative form makes clear that the verse presents God as raising the adversary into that role.
THE PATTERN
Human opposition remains within divine agency, sometimes raised as a counterforce and sometimes bounded in its reach.
Moreover the LORD roused against Jehoram the breath of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, who were beside the Ethiopians.And the LORD said to the Adversary, Look, all that he has is in your hand; only toward him do not stretch out your hand. So the Adversary went out from the face of the LORD.This one, handed over by the marked-out counsel and foreknowing of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of the unbounded, and you killed him.THE THREAD
And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, who was of the royal seed in Edom.The same root קום (qum, “rise or stand”) and the same noun שָׂטָן (satan, “adversary”) describe Hadad just before this verse. “Another” now lands as a second counterforce raised against Solomon.
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