What Does 1 Kings 11:7 Mean?
Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the recoiling thing of Moab, on the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the recoiling thing of the children of Ammon.
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
Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.THE KEY
The rival altar stands within Jerusalem’s sight: proximity to the sacred does not erase divided allegiance.
THE MEANING
You can place a rival trust within full view of what you call sacred and still leave the contradiction standing. The verse calls these objects abominations, naming the clash as something abhorrent rather than harmless difference.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that being near what is sacred means the rest of your life is aligned with it.
THE ROOT
שִׁקּוּץ
shiqquts
GROWS FROM
שׁקץ
Š-Q-Ṣ
to be detestable or to regard something as abhorrent
“recoiling thing” in this verse is shiqquts. The verse’s “abomination” belongs to the same root family as the verb “detest” and the noun for a detestable thing. That root makes the clash concrete: these are not neutral objects alongside the sacred, but things the verse marks as abhorrent even while they stand in its sight.
ALSO GROWS
shaqats: to detest or abhor
שָׁקַץ
The verb shows that abomination names a relationship of revulsion, not merely a foreign label.
sheqets: a detestable thing; an unclean creature
שֶׁקֶץ
This related noun carries the same abhorrence into both objects and creatures, showing how the root names what is regarded as repellent.
THE PATTERN
When allegiance divides, rival trusts become rival masters, even within sight of what is sacred.
You shall not walk after other gods, of the gods of the peoples surrounding you.And the high places that faced Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Ruin, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, the loathsome thing of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh, that loathsome thing of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the loathsome thing of the children of Ammon, the king soiled the high places.No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will hold fast to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
And the high places that faced Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Ruin, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, the loathsome thing of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh, that loathsome thing of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the loathsome thing of the children of Ammon, the king soiled the high places.Both verses use the Hebrew word שִׁקּוּץ (shiqquts), “abomination,” for Chemosh. The later verse makes the placement even more explicit: these rival altars stand before Jerusalem, where their nearness cannot hide what they are.
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