What Does 1 Kings 13:27 Mean?
And he spoke to his sons, saying, Saddle the donkey for me. And they saddled it for him.
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 spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for saddling a donkey also means binding a wound, so the same act of securing can prepare a bearer or support what is injured.
THE MEANING
A need takes shape through speech and is answered by hands: the donkey is secured for its rider. The verse holds the small but real transition from intention to readiness.
THE ROOT
חִבְשׁוּ
ḥivshu
GROWS FROM
חבש
To bind, fasten, or wrap; depending on what is being bound, to saddle an animal or bind a wound.
Here, חבש (ḥābash, to bind or fasten) makes the saddle an act of securing the donkey so it can bear its rider. The same root is used for binding wounds, joining readiness to carry with the support given to what is injured.
ALSO GROWS
ḥivshu: Saddle; fasten a riding animal.
חִבְשׁוּ
This is the action that readies the donkey to bear its rider.
ḥābash: Bind or bandage a wound.
חָבַשׁ
Isaiah 1:6 and Ezekiel 34:4 use this root for binding wounds, revealing another kind of securing: support for what is injured.
THE PATTERN
Binding can ready a bearer for movement or bind and support what is wounded.
And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the rising offering, and rose, and went to the place of which God had said to him.From the sole of the foot to the head there is no unbroken place in it, but wounds, welts, and fresh blows. They have not been closed, nor bound up, nor softened with oil.The weakened you have not held up, the sick you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the driven away you have not brought back, the one who lost the way you have not sought. But with a hard grip and with crushing you have trodden them down.THE THREAD
From the sole of the foot to the head there is no unbroken place in it, but wounds, welts, and fresh blows. They have not been closed, nor bound up, nor softened with oil.The verb חבש (ḥābash, to bind or fasten) used for saddling the donkey also describes binding a wound in Isaiah. The shared root links preparing something to bear weight with supporting what has been injured.
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