What Does 1 Kings 14:13 Mean?
And all Israel shall wail for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him a good word was found toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
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 all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls it a davar, a word or matter: what is good in him has a name and a direction toward the LORD, even inside Jeroboam’s house.
THE MEANING
A good matter toward the LORD remains visible in a person within a house marked by judgment; that inner reality is why he alone is mourned and buried. For you now, the verse holds the story around you apart from what is found within you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The reputation of the people around you determines what can be found in you.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
To speak; a word or matter.
“a good word” in this verse is davar. The word rendered “thing” is davar, which can also mean “word” or “matter,” and shares its root with the verb “speak.” The goodness found in him is a recognizable matter with direction, toward the LORD, not a label inherited from his house.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: to speak
דִּבֵּר
It is a verb from the same root; a davar can be what is spoken as well as a matter found in him.
devarim: words, matters
דְּבָרִים
This plural carries the same range of utterance and circumstance, keeping the phrase wider than English “thing.”
THE PATTERN
What is truly good is recognized at its source and known by what it brings forth.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make that good word stand, which I have spoken to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.THE THREAD
Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make that good word stand, which I have spoken to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.Jeremiah uses the same phrase, davar tov, rendered “that good thing,” for the LORD’s promised word to Israel and Judah. Here the good matter is found in a person; there it is spoken and brought to pass, letting “thing” retain the life of a word.
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