What Does 1 Kings 14:4 Mean?
And Jeroboam's wife did so, and rose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes stood still with age.
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 Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb says she “arose” and his eyes “were set”: she moves toward the seer while his sight has come to a standstill.
THE MEANING
You can arrive seeking sight and find that the one you came to cannot see. One Hebrew root holds her rising beside his eyes standing, setting movement next to sight dimmed by age. The verse lets that limit remain in view.
THE ROOT
וַתָּקָם
vattāqām
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
Rise, stand, or be established.
“stood still” in this verse is vattāqām. The woman “arose” and Ahijah’s eyes “stood” use forms of the same root. English separates her movement from his fixed sight, while Hebrew lets the two actions echo each other in one scene.
ALSO GROWS
heqim: Raise, set up, or establish.
הֵקִים
This causative branch makes the root’s movement from standing to being set in place explicit.
maqom: Place; a standing place.
מָקוֹם
The word for a place carries the same root, connecting where someone stands with the act of standing.
לִרְאוֹת
lirot
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra’ah
See, look, or perceive.
“could not see” in this verse is lirot. The verse names a literal inability to see, and the same root can also describe perceiving or regarding. That wider range deepens the word without making Ahijah’s physical blindness into a metaphor.
ALSO GROWS
ro’eh: A seer; one who sees.
רֹאֶה
The branch names a person by the act of seeing, fitting the contrast between Ahijah’s role as a seer and his impaired sight.
mar’eh: Appearance or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This branch names what is seen, extending the same root from the act of seeing to its visible object.
THE PATTERN
Scripture holds bodily sight and perception in the same language, so impaired eyes do not settle every question of who sees.
And it came to pass at that time, when Eli lay down in his place, and his eyes began to dim, so that he could not see.And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?And Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see might see, and that those who see might become blind.THE THREAD
And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?Ahijah’s inability to see and Hagar’s words “Thou God seest me” draw on the same root, ראה (ra’ah), “to see.” One verse names the limits of a human seer’s eyes; the other gives Hagar the language of being seen.
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