What Does 1 Kings 21:25 Mean?
But there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to work evil in the eyes of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
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
But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.THE KEY
Jezebel incites Ahab, yet the verse says Ahab sells himself: outside pressure and self-surrender occupy the same sentence.
THE MEANING
This verse names a live pattern: a person can hand themselves over to harm while another person’s pressure stirs the choice. The influence is real, and so is the person’s participation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that being pressured means a person has no part in what they yield themselves to; the verse names both Jezebel’s incitement and Ahab’s self-sale.
THE ROOT
הִתְמַכֵּר
hitmakker
GROWS FROM
מכר
To sell or transfer into another’s possession.
“sold himself” in this verse is hitmakker. The verb is reflexive: he sells himself. The root’s ordinary language of sale gives the phrase the shape of a transaction, making Ahab’s self-surrender part of the verse’s image even as it names Jezebel’s incitement.
ALSO GROWS
makhar: To sell.
מָכַר
The basic verb makes the sale image explicit: the person is not merely near evil but is handed over to it by his own act.
mimkar: A sale; something sold.
מִמְכָּר
This noun carries the same root into the thing transferred, deepening the image of a self given over.
הֵסִיתָה
hēsîtāh
GROWS FROM
סות
To incite or entice someone toward an action.
“stirred up” in this verse is hēsîtāh. The verb describes active incitement, not a neutral presence. Beside Ahab’s self-sale, it holds two forces in view at once: Jezebel stirs him, and he gives himself over.
ALSO GROWS
hēsît: To incite or entice.
הֵסִית
This verbal form shows the force of the action attributed to Jezebel: urging someone toward a course.
mēsît: One who incites; an instigator.
מֵסִית
The related noun names the person who exerts that pressure, clarifying the role the verse assigns to Jezebel.
THE PATTERN
Influence can press in from outside while a person’s yielding still shapes what governs them.
My son, if those who miss the mark coax you, do not go along.Do you not know that to the one you set yourselves beside as servants for hearing and response, his servants you are, the one you hear and respond to; whether of falling short unto death, or of hearing and response unto alignment?THE THREAD
Thus says the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's cutting away, whom I have sent away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, for your crookedness you have sold yourselves, and for your rebellions your mother has been sent away.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root for “sold yourselves,” making the sale image a direct lexical echo. It opens Ahab’s self-sale as a picture of being handed over through wrongdoing, while the verse still names the force of Jezebel’s incitement.
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