What Does 1 Kings 13:21 Mean?
And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says the LORD, Because you have rebelled against the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the command which the LORD your God commanded you,
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 he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,THE KEY
Disobedience here is a failure of guardianship: the word spoken by God is something entrusted to be kept.
THE MEANING
The verse puts the reader before a clear word: crossing it is rebellion, and failing to guard it is a breach of trust. A later voice may sound religious or persuasive, but it cannot erase the command already entrusted. The charge carries consequence; the verse does not make disobedience harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that a persuasive religious voice can make a clear command disposable. Authority claimed afterward does not undo responsibility for the word already entrusted.
THE ROOT
מָרִיתָ
māritā
GROWS FROM
מרה
to rebel, resist, or act defiantly
“rebelled against” in this verse is māritā. The Hebrew names this as rebellion against the LORD’s mouth: resistance to the word spoken, not just a mistaken step. The related forms make rebellion a condition with a name, not a softer failure of understanding.
ALSO GROWS
mĕrî: rebellion
מְרִי
This noun gives the act a durable shape: the verse identifies the breach as rebellion.
mōrîm: rebels
מֹרִים
The related form names people as rebels, showing the force of the root behind the verse’s charge.
שָׁמַרְתָּ
shāmartā
GROWS FROM
שמר
to guard, keep watch over, or preserve
The word translated kept carries the image of guarding what has been entrusted. The command is not only something to obey; it is something whose boundary the man of God is charged to protect.
ALSO GROWS
shōmēr: guardian or watchman
שֹׁמֵר
This branch makes the guarding sense visible: keeping a word is like standing watch over it.
mishmeret: charge or guard duty
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It names what is entrusted for safekeeping, illuminating the command as a responsibility placed in the man’s care.
הַמִּצְוָה
hamitzvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
to command, direct, or charge
“command” in this verse is hamitzvah. The Hebrew noun for commandment and the verb for commanded in this verse come from the same root. The charge is concrete: it is the word the LORD gave, not an undefined rule detached from the one who spoke it.
ALSO GROWS
tsivvah: he commanded
צִוָּה
The verse uses this related verb for the LORD’s act, tying the commandment to a specific act of giving the charge.
tsav: command or precept
צַו
This related noun keeps the sense of a directive, reinforcing that the man was entrusted with a defined word.
THE PATTERN
A word received from God remains a living charge: fidelity appears in guarding and doing it, while ritual or mere hearing cannot replace it.
Every word that I command you, guard to do it. You shall not add to it, nor scrape away from it.And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
You shall guard closely the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.Both verses use שָׁמַר (shamar), meaning to guard or keep watch over, for keeping the commandments. Here the man fails to guard the command entrusted to him; Deuteronomy uses the same root for keeping the commandments, testimonies, and statutes in view.
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