What Does 1 Kings 16:27 Mean?
Now the rest of the words of Omri, which he did, and his might that he showed, 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 Omri which he did, and his might that he shewed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats עָשָׂה (asah, to do) for both Omri’s acts and his might: his power, too, is named as something he did.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a ruler’s actions and his prevailing force together in a written record. What Omri does remains legible after his reign has passed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruler’s actions do not disappear when the ruler is gone; the verse presents them as recorded.
THE ROOT
גְּבוּרָה
gevurah
GROWS FROM
גבר
To prevail; to be strong.
The Hebrew word for might grows from a root about prevailing. The same root can describe force that overcomes, without saying that the force is good or just.
ALSO GROWS
gabar: Prevail, grow strong.
גָּבַר
This verb appears for the waters that prevailed in the flood, showing that the root names force overcoming resistance.
gibbor: A mighty one; a warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
The word for a mighty person grows from the same root as prevailing force.
מַעֲשֶׂה
ma'aseh
GROWS FROM
עשה
To do; to make.
“words” in this verse is ma'aseh. The Hebrew says of Omri’s acts, “which he did,” then uses the same verb again for his might, “which he did.” The wording binds deeds and displayed power together as things he performed.
ALSO GROWS
asah: Do, make, perform.
עָשָׂה
This is the verb repeated for both Omri’s acts and his might.
ma'aseh: Deed, work, action.
מַעֲשֶׂה
The noun for an act comes from the same seed as the verb “to do,” tying the record to what Omri carried out.
סֵפֶר דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים
sefer divrei hayamim
GROWS FROM
דבר
Word, speech, matter, or thing.
“words of the days” in this verse is sefer divrei hayamim. The Hebrew phrase is literally a “book of the words” or “matters of the days.” The record gathers what happened into words that remain readable across time.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
The record is made of matters put into words.
dibber: Speak; utter words.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch shows how the root connects the account to the telling of events.
THE PATTERN
What is done can outlast its moment because it remains in a record.
The rest of all the words of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah? Yet in the time of his old age he was sick in his feet.For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through the comfort of the writings we might hold hope.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
And the waters grew mighty and multiplied greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters.Genesis uses גָּבַר (gabar, to prevail) for the waters that overtake the earth. That makes Omri’s might a word about prevailing force itself; the root names power without declaring it righteous.
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