What Does 1 Kings 19:20 Mean?
And he let go of the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me, please, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will walk after you." And he said to him, "Go, turn back, for what have I done to you?"
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 he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb names Elisha’s “I will follow” and Elijah’s “Go”: both are movements, and the difference is which way Elisha turns.
THE MEANING
The verse holds Elisha’s affection for his parents alongside his movement toward a new path. Elijah tells him to go and return, then asks what he has done to him; the summons does not erase the love Elisha names. A farewell can belong within the movement toward what comes next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a true calling requires an immediate severing of family ties is undone here: Elisha is told to return and kiss his parents before he follows.
THE ROOT
וְאֵלְכָה
ve’elkha
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
to go, walk
“walk after you” in this verse is ve’elkha. Elisha’s words are literally “I will go after you.” Elijah’s “Go” comes from the same root, so the Hebrew frames following and returning as movements along a path.
ALSO GROWS
lekh: go
לֵךְ
This is Elijah’s command, from the same root as Elisha’s promise to go after him.
halikhah: walking; a journey
הֲלִיכָה
The walk and journey sense keeps “follow” grounded in movement along a way.
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
שוב
sh-w-b
to turn back, return
Elijah’s phrase is “Go, return”: the call includes a turn back before Elisha follows. This root can also describe restoration, giving return a shade of being brought back rather than simply going backward.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This form carries the root’s sense of turning, which is present in Elijah’s direction to return.
yeshovev: restores; brings back
יְשׁוֹבֵב
Psalm 23:3 uses this form for restoration, joining the root of “return” with the sense of being restored.
THE PATTERN
A call takes shape through chosen movement, as a person leaves one place and goes toward another.
And Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go now and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in wholeness.And Ruth said, Do not press me to let go of you, or to turn back from following after you. For where you walk, I will walk, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your God my God.And straightway they let go of the nets, and followed him.THE THREAD
He turns back my living soul; he leads me in the tracks of alignment for the sake of his nature.“Restoreth” comes from שׁוב, the same root as Elijah’s “return.” The root lets return carry the sense of restoration too, opening Elisha’s return as part of the journey rather than a failure to follow.
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