What Does 1 Kings 11:32 Mean?
But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
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
(But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)THE KEY
The one tribe remains as a sign of relationship: its place rests on David and the chosen city, not on its size.
THE MEANING
A remaining part can still carry meaning when its numbers are small. Here the one tribe remains within a bond to David and to the city God chooses, so smallness does not erase its place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a small remnant has become insignificant: the one tribe is specifically preserved because of the bond it carries.
THE ROOT
בָּחַר
bāḥar
GROWS FROM
בחר
b-ḥ-r
To choose or select from among.
In English, “chosen” can sound like a settled status; בָּחַר names the act of selecting. The verse places the one tribe’s continuance beside Jerusalem’s deliberate selection, making preservation a matter of choice rather than size.
ALSO GROWS
bāḥīr: Chosen one; elect.
בָּחִיר
The city’s chosen status is part of the reason the one tribe remains.
mibḥār: Choice; a choice portion or the best selection.
מִבְחָר
This branch brings out the act of selecting from among many, as the verse says Jerusalem is chosen from all Israel’s tribes.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
The city’s name echoes שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), and its -ayim ending has a dual form. Against a kingdom being divided, Jerusalem carries the name-sense of wholeness within the place God chooses.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The city’s name brings wholeness into a verse about a kingdom losing most of its tribes.
shalem: Whole; complete; sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch shows the shared root’s sense of completeness carried in Jerusalem’s name.
דָּוִד
Dāwid
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; the root also names a beloved relative.
David’s name is tied to דּוֹד (dod, beloved). The one tribe remains “for David’s sake,” so its continuance is tethered to a beloved bond as well as to the chosen city.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also a paternal uncle.
דּוֹד
This branch brings the relational sense of David’s name into the reason given for the tribe’s preservation.
dodim: Loves; caresses.
דּוֹדִים
This form carries the root’s intimate, beloved sense, making “for David’s sake” more than a bare name.
THE PATTERN
A remnant is preserved through a choice and a bond that give it meaning beyond its numbers.
Yet the LORD would not ruin Judah for the sake of David his servant, as he had said to give him a lamp all the days, to him and to his children.For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has longed for it as his seat.So also now, in this present season, there is a remnant left behind, picked out by favor.THE THREAD
For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has longed for it as his seat.The Hebrew בָּחַר (bāḥar, to choose) links the chosen city here with Zion, which the Psalm says the LORD has chosen. The Psalm adds that this chosen place is desired as a dwelling, opening the verse’s preservation of one tribe onto the city’s place of nearness.
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