What Does 1 Kings 13:5 Mean?
The altar also was split apart, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
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
The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.THE KEY
The sign makes the spoken word visible: the altar is torn open, and what it holds spills out.
THE MEANING
A spoken word takes visible form as the altar splits and its ashes spill out. What appears fixed and sacred can be opened, bringing what it holds into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred structure is untouchable and cannot be broken open.
THE ROOT
בִּדְבַר
bidvar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
The Hebrew word dabar can mean a spoken word or a matter, thing, or event.
The verse joins speech and event in one lexical family: dabar can name both a word and a matter. The altar’s rupture is the visible matter of the word; the sign does not stay abstract.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The sign is a matter that happens: the altar breaks and the ashes spill.
dibbēr: To speak or declare.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken declaration is joined to a visible event in the verse.
נִקְרָע
niqraʿ
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ע
To tear or rend.
“split apart” in this verse is niqraʿ. The altar is not merely moved or damaged; it is torn open. The root gives the sign the force of a visible rupture in what seemed fixed.
ALSO GROWS
qāraʿ: To tear or rend.
קָרַע
This is the verb behind the altar being rent.
qeriʿāh: Tearing or rending.
קְרִיעָה
The related noun preserves the image of a thing being split open.
וַיִּשָּׁפֵךְ
vayyishāphēkh
GROWS FROM
ש־פ־ך
To pour out or spill.
“were poured out” in this verse is vayyishāphēkh. The same root describes pouring out a heart, as in Psalm 62:8. Here it gives the altar’s contents a physical outpouring: what was held within is brought into view.
ALSO GROWS
shāphaḵ: To pour out or spill.
שָׁפַךְ
The verb describes the ashes spilling from the altar.
shefikhāh: Pouring out or spillage.
שְׁפִיכָה
This related form names the outpouring that turns the altar’s hidden contents into a visible sign.
THE PATTERN
A word or sign becomes visible when the material world changes or what seemed fixed is opened.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.And it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split open beneath them.And look, the hanging curtain of the temple was torn in two, from above to below, and the earth shook, and the rocks broke open.THE THREAD
Lean your full weight upon him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before him. God is our shelter. Selah.The same Hebrew root, shaphak, describes the ashes poured out here and the heart poured out in the psalm. The shared word connects a physical spill with what is brought from within into the open.
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