What Does 1 Kings 22:13 Mean?
And the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth. Let your word, I ask you, be like the word of one of them, and speak what is good.
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 the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.THE KEY
“One mouth” turns consensus into pressure to make a dissenting voice sound the same.
THE MEANING
You feel the pull to let a room’s agreement decide what counts as good. A pleasing message can sound settled because many mouths repeat it, while your own speech is asked to conform before it is heard. The verse lets you see unanimity as pressure, not proof.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a unanimous voice must be telling the truth.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun means word, speech, or matter.
The prophets’ “words,” the requested “word,” and the command to “speak” all grow from the same root. English separates the word from the act of speaking; Hebrew binds them, making the request itself part of the pressure to repeat the chorus.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: Spoke; a verb form from the same root.
דִּבֶּר
The verse’s final “speak” shares its root with the “word” Micaiah is asked to imitate, joining the proposed message to the act of voicing it.
devarim: Words or matters; the plural form of dābār.
דְּבָרִים
The prophets’ many words are presented as one approved message, showing how separate voices can be pressed into a single public line.
THE PATTERN
When speech is judged by how well it pleases the powerful or the crowd, agreement can pressure a voice to conform.
And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD. But I hate him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.For now, do I persuade people or God? Or do I seek to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of the Anointed One.For a time will come when they will not bear healthy teaching, but according to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears.THE THREAD
And Micaiah said, As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak.The messenger asks Micaiah to make his dābār (דָּבָר, “word, speech”) match the chorus; Micaiah answers with dibbēr (דִּבֶּר, “speak”), from the same ד־ב־ר root. The repeated seed sharpens the choice: whether his speech echoes the room or voices what he has received.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us