What Does 1 Kings 17:2 Mean?
And the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
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 the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,THE KEY
Hebrew holds “word” and “matter” together: the LORD’s word arrives as something that enters life, not as detached information.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word comes to the one who receives it, already moving toward speech. What is received meets life as a matter that can be named and heard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a word from God is only an idea to consider: here it arrives and speaks into the life it addresses.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew noun דָּבָר (dābār) holds speech and matter together. The LORD’s word is not detached commentary: it comes into the life it addresses, and the verse’s “saying” shows it moving directly into speech.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
One Hebrew noun can name both what is spoken and the matter being spoken about, bringing message and lived concern together.
dibber: To speak or say.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root and makes the link to the verse’s closing “saying” audible: the word comes already oriented toward speech.
THE PATTERN
A word from God arrives as a present event that carries speech into the life of the one who receives it.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.THE THREAD
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Genesis uses the same Hebrew phrase, דְּבַר־יְהוָה (devar YHWH, “word of the LORD”). There, the arriving word immediately names what it is to Abram; here, too, the word arrives as speech addressed to the life receiving it.
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