What Does 1 Kings 21:6 Mean?
And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me your vineyard for silver, or else, if it is good in your eyes, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard.
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 said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard.THE KEY
A replacement can change the price, but it cannot give Ahab the authority to give Naboth’s vineyard away.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a balanced-sounding offer beside a refusal that remains complete. Money or a substitute vineyard does not create consent in the person being asked. The reader can hear how an offer may seem fair by the asker’s measure while the other person’s answer still stands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A fair price or equivalent replacement makes refusal unreasonable.
THE ROOT
תְּנָה
tenah
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
give, set, place
The root נתן appears in Ahab’s request that Naboth give the vineyard, Ahab’s offer to give a replacement, and Naboth’s refusal to give his vineyard. Its sense of setting or placing opens the dispute further: it concerns who can determine where this inherited ground belongs, not only what price it might fetch.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun grows from the same root and names what is received; an offered gift or exchange still differs from a transfer the owner refuses.
nethinim: given ones; temple servants
נְתִינִים
The name uses the same root for people assigned to a place of service, echoing the question of who has authority to place something in another’s hands.
THE PATTERN
A transfer is truthful only when it respects who holds authority over what is given and whether the giving is willing.
The land shall not be sold for good, for the land is mine; for you are sojourners and those who settle beside me.While it remained with you, was it not yours? And when it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why have you set this deed in your heart? You have not lied to humankind, but to God.Each one, as his heart has taken hold, so let him give, not from grief or from pressure, for God loves a glad giver.THE THREAD
And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD keep it far from me, that I should give the holding of my fathers to you.The same root נתן appears in Naboth’s refusal, but this verse names what his vineyard carries: his fathers’ inheritance. That makes clear why a replacement parcel cannot simply answer the request.
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