What Does 1 Kings 18:25 Mean?
And Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for you are many. And call on the name of your gods, but set no fire beneath it.
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 Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.THE KEY
The decisive boundary is not whether fire appears, but whether the invoked power supplies it rather than human hands.
THE MEANING
The verse places each claim before a test whose cause is visible: the bull is chosen and prepared, the gods’ name is summoned, and humanly placed fire is barred. It brings the question to the reader wherever a power is credited with an outcome: who supplies the decisive cause?
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A dramatic result proves the power whose name is invoked. The verse makes the source part of the proof by forbidding the people to place the fire themselves.
THE ROOT
תָשִׂימוּ
tāsîmû
GROWS FROM
שׂים
put, place, set
The verb means to place or set: the prohibition rules out humanly putting fire beneath the offering. The test leaves the source of any answering fire visible; the boundary governs its cause, not merely the spectacle.
ALSO GROWS
sam: he placed or set
שָׂם
This form makes the act concrete: fire beneath the offering would be something a person deliberately placed.
simah: placing or setting
שִׂימָה
The prohibition concerns the placement of fire itself, leaving any answer to come from the power invoked.
וְקִרְאוּ
veqir’u
GROWS FROM
קרא
call, summon, proclaim
“call” in this verse is veqir’u. The root can mean to summon or proclaim. Joined to shem (שֵׁם; name as nature), calling on a name invokes the character represented by it, rather than treating the name as a sound formula.
ALSO GROWS
qeri’ah: calling or reading
קְרִיאָה
The spoken appeal is voiced and heard; it is more than a private thought.
miqra: convocation or reading
מִקְרָא
This branch connects the root with a public summons, fitting the open contest in the verse.
וַעֲשׂוּ
va‘asu
GROWS FROM
עשה
do, make, act
“dress” in this verse is va‘asu. The Hebrew verb broadly means do or make, rendered here as preparing the offering. The people control the selection and preparation, while the decisive fire remains outside their hands.
ALSO GROWS
ma‘aseh: deed or work
מַעֲשֶׂה
Preparation belongs to the human action in the test; the source of the fire does not.
‘asiyah: doing or action
עֲשִׂיָּה
The root keeps attention on what people themselves do before the answer appears.
THE PATTERN
A sign attributed to divine action arrives from its claimed source instead of being supplied by people.
Then the fire of the LORD fell, and ate the rising offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the waters that were in the trench.And when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from the heavens and devoured the rising offering and the sacrifices, and the weight of the LORD filled the house.And there appeared to them tongues, parting like fire, and it settled upon each of them.THE THREAD
And call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, The word is good.The same root qara (קרא; call or summon) sets both appeals side by side. Verse 25 makes the appeal testable: the prohibition on placing fire exposes whether the invoked name can answer.
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