What Does 1 Kings 11:41 Mean?
And the rest of the words of Solomon, all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the words of Solomon?
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 the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?THE KEY
The Hebrew behind “acts” also means “words” and “matters,” so the book gathers Solomon’s speech and affairs alongside what he did.
THE MEANING
A life is carried forward through more than its visible deeds: its words, affairs, and wisdom belong to the same account. Here, the record holds a fuller telling of Solomon than a bare list of actions.
THE ROOT
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
דבר
Word, speech, matter, or affair.
The KJV’s “acts” renders דִּבְרֵי (divrei), which carries the sense of “words” or “matters.” The root lets Solomon’s account gather what was spoken and what took place alongside what he did.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, statement, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
This noun shows how the account can include Solomon’s words and affairs as well as his deeds.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
Speech grows from the same root, bringing Solomon’s spoken words into the same telling as his actions.
סֵפֶר
sefer
GROWS FROM
ספר
Count, recount, or tell.
Sefer belongs to the root family of counting and recounting. The book is an ordered telling that keeps a life available to be recounted.
ALSO GROWS
saphar: To count, recount, or tell.
סָפַר
The book’s root carries the act of recounting, joining a written record to the telling of what happened.
mispar: A number or count.
מִסְפָּר
This branch echoes the ordered account held in the book.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shelomoh
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be whole, complete, or sound.
“Solomon” in this verse is Shelomoh. Shelomoh shares the root family of shalom, wholeness. His name carries a nature into the record, which holds his words, deeds, and wisdom together in one telling.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch gives the name Solomon its connection to wholeness.
shalem: Whole, complete, or intact.
שָׁלֵם
This branch echoes the fuller portrait formed when the record holds more than deeds alone.
THE PATTERN
A written account gathers a life’s words, deeds, and wisdom, while no single record exhausts all it contains.
Now the words of David the king, the first and the last, look, they are written in the scroll of Samuel the one who sees, and in that of Nathan the prophet, and in that of Gad the one who sees.And moreover, because the assembler was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; he gave ear, dug deep, and set straight many proverbs.And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if they were written down one by one, I suppose that even the ordered world itself could not make room for the books that would be written. Amen.THE THREAD
Now the words of David the king, the first and the last, look, they are written in the scroll of Samuel the one who sees, and in that of Nathan the prophet, and in that of Gad the one who sees.The Hebrew behind “acts” in both verses is דִּבְרֵי (divrei), from דָּבָר (davar), meaning “words” or “matters.” The shared word lets each record gather a person’s affairs and speech into the telling of their life.
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