What Does 1 Kings 2:27 Mean?
So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, that he might fill the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
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
So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses the same root for the LORD’s “word” and what he “spake,” presenting Abiathar’s expulsion as speech made event.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you with a word made concrete: Abiathar is expelled from priestly service, and that removal is named as the completion of what the LORD spoke. Fulfillment here takes the form of a real loss of office; the word is not detached from what happens to a person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that fulfillment must arrive as gain or relief: here the word reaches completion through a person’s removal from office.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
dĕvar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; a spoken word or matter.
“word / spake” in this verse is dĕvar. The Hebrew repeats one root in “word” and “spake”: what English presents as an object and an action is one spoken reality. The verse presents Abiathar’s expulsion as that utterance taking visible form.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the form translated “word”; it carries speech as something with substance.
dibber: Spoke or uttered.
דִּבֶּר
This is the form translated “spake,” repeating the root and linking the LORD’s utterance directly to the word being fulfilled.
לְמַלֵּא
lemallēʾ
GROWS FROM
מלא
m-l-ʾ
Fill or be full; in this form, bring to completion.
“fill the word” in this verse is lemallēʾ. The verse pictures fulfillment as a word brought to fullness. A related priestly term also comes from this root, adding an echo between the word’s completion and Abiathar’s priestly office.
ALSO GROWS
maleʾ: Fill or be full.
מָלֵא
This is the root’s basic image: what is spoken reaches its full effect.
milluʾim: “Fillings,” a term for priestly installation or consecration rites.
מִלּוּאִים
This priestly term shares the root of “fulfil,” bringing the language of completion alongside Abiathar’s priestly role.
וַיְגָרֶשׁ
waygarēš
GROWS FROM
גרש
g-r-sh
Drive away or expel.
“thrust out” in this verse is waygarēš. This verb gives the action an outward force: Solomon expels Abiathar from priestly service. A related form describes a divorced woman, showing the root’s reach into separation from an established bond or status.
ALSO GROWS
legarēsh: To drive out or expel.
לְגָרֵשׁ
It names the same force as Solomon’s action toward Abiathar.
gerushah: A divorced woman; one put away.
גְּרוּשָׁה
This related form shows the root can describe separation from an established relationship, echoing Abiathar’s separation from his office.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word reaches completion through visible events, including events that carry loss.
In that day I will raise up against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will also finish it.There fell not one good word of all that the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all of it came.And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day these things come to be, because you did not lean your full weight on my words, which will be filled in their season.THE THREAD
In that day I will raise up against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will also finish it.The Hebrew uses the same דבר root for “spoken” here as for “word” and “spake” in 1 Kings 2:27. One verse names the word’s completion; the other shows that completion in Abiathar’s expulsion.
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