What Does 1 Kings 15:31 Mean?
Now the rest of the words of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?
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
Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?THE KEY
The Hebrew phrase behind “chronicles” means “the words of the days”: a life’s deeds become a tellable record.
THE MEANING
A life is not exhausted by its most visible moment; the remaining deeds also belong in its account. What is done can be gathered into words that carry it beyond the moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The idea that one headline exhausts a life is undone here: the “rest” of the deeds also has a place in the record.
THE ROOT
דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים
divrei hayyamim
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; word, matter, or affair.
“words of the days” in this verse is divrei hayyamim. The English “chronicles” hides a Hebrew phrase that says “the words or matters of the days.” The record gathers what happened into words that can still be told.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This root lets “words” also carry the sense of what took place or was at issue.
dibber: Spoke or spoke about.
דִּבֵּר
The same root links a written record with the act of speaking what happened.
סֵפֶר
sefer
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
To count, recount, number, or tell.
The word for “book” belongs to the same Hebrew family as counting and recounting. The record is not only a container; its word carries the act of telling the account.
ALSO GROWS
safar: Count or recount.
סָפַר
In Psalm 56:8, a form of this verb is translated “tellest,” connecting a book with the act of recounting.
mispar: Number or count.
מִסְפָּר
This branch shows the root’s sense of gathering particulars into a countable account.
נָדָב
Nadav
GROWS FROM
נדב
n-d-b
To be willing or to offer freely.
Nadab’s name carries the language of willingness and voluntary offering. The verse keeps that name beside the record of all he did, allowing name and deeds to stand together.
ALSO GROWS
nedavah: Freewill offering.
נְדָבָה
This branch carries the root’s sense of giving voluntarily.
nadiv: Willing, generous, or noble person.
נָדִיב
This related word shows how the root’s sense of willingness also describes a person.
THE PATTERN
A life’s details become tellable through records that keep its deeds in view.
You count my wanderings; you set my tears in your skin bottle. Are they not in your count?For God brings every making into judgment, upon every hidden thing, whether good or harm.And I see the dead, small and great, standing before God. The scrolls are opened, and another scroll is opened, which is the book of life. The dead are judged by the things written in the scrolls, according to their works.THE THREAD
You count my wanderings; you set my tears in your skin bottle. Are they not in your count?In Psalm 56:8, “tellest” is a form of סָפַר (safar, “count or recount”), while “book” is סֵפֶר (sefer, “book”); both come from ספר (s-p-r). The same root underlies the book named in Kings, tying the written account to the act of recounting.
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