What Does 1 Kings 13:1 Mean?
And look, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel, and Jeroboam stood beside the altar to make the smoke rise.
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, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Beth-el: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.THE KEY
At Bethel, בֵּית־אֵל (Bêt-ʾEl, “House of God”), the LORD’s word arrives from Judah while the king already stands at the altar, showing that a sacred name cannot settle whose word governs worship.
THE MEANING
You see a man from Judah arrive by the LORD’s word at Bethel, the “House of God,” while Jeroboam stands at the altar to burn incense. The verse holds the place’s sacred name and visible ritual beside a word that arrives from the LORD, so neither name nor ceremony certifies the source of worship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred place-name and an active altar do not, by themselves, prove that the LORD’s word governs what happens there.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
dəvar
GROWS FROM
דבר
The root carries the sense of speaking or uttering; דָּבָר (dābār) means “word” and also “matter” or “affair.”
The same word-family holds spoken word and matter together; here, the man comes by that word. English can make “word” sound like mere information, but the Hebrew ties it to an embodied arrival.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word; matter or affair.
דָּבָר
The noun’s range keeps speech and the matter at hand within one word-family.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The verb shows the speaking action within the same root as the word that brings the man to Bethel.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
The root means “slaughter” or “sacrifice”; מִזְבֵּחַ names an altar, a place of sacrifice.
The altar’s Hebrew name grows from the word for sacrifice, marking this as a place defined by offering rather than a neutral platform. Jeroboam’s incense stands within that charged center of worship.
ALSO GROWS
zābaḥ: To slaughter; to sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb names the act from which the altar’s name is formed.
zevaḥ: Sacrifice; sacrificial offering.
זֶבַח
This noun keeps the altar connected to the offering made there.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s word goes where it is sent, sometimes arriving through a human witness.
And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh, for the LORD uncovered himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.A man came, sent from God, and his name was John.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.The same Hebrew noun, דָּבָר (dābār, “word; matter”), appears in Isaiah’s declaration that the LORD’s word goes forth and accomplishes its purpose. In Kings, that movement takes visible form as a man arrives at Bethel by the word.
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