What Does 1 Kings 15:5 Mean?
Because David did what was straight in the eyes of the LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter concerning Uriah the Hittite.
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
Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.THE KEY
A long straight course does not make the break in it disappear.
THE MEANING
The verse holds David’s sustained obedience and the killing of Uriah in the same account. It speaks now by showing that the good across a life does not erase a specific harm, and that harm does not make every other day false.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a mostly upright life makes a particular act of violence negligible. It also refuses to turn one act into the whole of a life.
THE ROOT
הַיָּשָׁר
hayyashar
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or upright.
The Hebrew הַיָּשָׁר (hayyashar, “the straight” or “right”) gives the verse a picture of a straight course. “Turned not aside” continues that image, while the final clause names the specific break in it.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, upright, right.
יָשָׁר
This is the root word behind “right,” describing a course that holds its line.
yosher: Uprightness, straightness.
יֹשֶׁר
This branch shows that the root can describe a quality of conduct as well as a straight shape.
mishor: Level ground, a plain.
מִישׁוֹר
The root’s physical sense of level ground makes the verse’s image of a steady course tangible.
בִּדְבַר
bidvar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, a spoken word, matter, or affair.
The “matter of Uriah” is דָּבָר (davar), a word that can mean both “word” and “matter.” In 2 Samuel 12:9, the KJV renders this same word as the LORD’s “commandment,” joining the specific matter of Uriah to the word David disregards.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, saying, matter, or affair.
דָּבָר
The verse uses this word for the specific affair of Uriah, while it can also name a spoken word.
dibber: Spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root and shows how the word for a matter is tied to speech.
dibbur: Speech or utterance.
דִּבּוּר
This branch makes the root’s connection between speaking and a matter explicit.
אוּרִיָּה
ʾUriyah
GROWS FROM
א־ו־ר
ʾ-w-r
Light; to shine or give light.
“Uriah” in this verse is ʾUriyah. The name אוּרִיָּה (ʾUriyah) is commonly understood as “YHWH is my light.” The verse names the exception through a person whose name places light in relation to YHWH, giving the name its own weight within the account.
ALSO GROWS
ʾor: Light.
אוֹר
This is the light-word at the heart of Uriah’s name.
lehaʾir: To give light, illuminate.
לְהָאִיר
This verb grows from the same root and carries its sense of light becoming visible.
meʾor: Luminary or light source.
מְאוֹר
This branch names something that bears or gives light, extending the root’s imagery.
THE PATTERN
The divine gaze holds a whole pattern and a specific act in the same account.
And he wrote in the scroll, saying, "Set Uriah opposite the face of the battle, where it grips hardest, and turn away from him, that he may be struck down and die."The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the harm and the good.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
Why have you made light of the word of the LORD, to do evil in his eyes? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and you have taken his wife to be your wife, and you have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.The Hebrew דָּבָר (davar) can mean “word” or “matter”: it names the “matter of Uriah” here and is rendered “commandment” in this verse. The shared word binds the specific act to the word David despises.
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