What Does 1 Kings 22:6 Mean?
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I hold still? And they said, Go up, for the LORD shall give it into the hand of the king.
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
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.THE KEY
The crowd’s agreement gives the forecast volume, while its key verb pictures victory as something the LORD places in the king’s hand.
THE MEANING
You can face a decision while a whole room supplies a confident answer. Four hundred voices tell the king to go and present victory as the LORD’s gift before the outcome is visible. Their agreement describes the force of the claim, while the truth of it remains a separate question.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A claim does not become God’s word merely because many confident voices repeat it.
THE ROOT
וְיִתֵּן
ve-yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
give, set, place
The Hebrew verb comes from נָתַן (natan, give, set, place), picturing Ramoth-gilead being placed in the king’s hand. That is the substance of the prophets’ assurance; the root itself leaves the truth of their forecast open.
ALSO GROWS
Gift: Gift; something given.
מַתָּנָה
The prediction casts victory as a gift bestowed on the king.
Giving: The act of giving or granting.
נְתִינָה
This branch makes the promised transfer explicit: the city is to be granted into the king’s hand.
וַיִּקְבֹּץ
vayyiqbotz
GROWS FROM
קבץ
gather, collect, assemble
The four hundred are presented as a gathered collective, giving their agreement a striking unity. The root describes their assembly, while leaving whether their shared forecast is true as a separate question.
ALSO GROWS
Gathering: A gathering or collection.
קִבּוּץ
The word preserves the image of many people brought together as one group.
Group: A group or collection.
קְבוּצָה
This branch echoes the gathered multitude whose shared voice answers the king.
THE PATTERN
A crowd’s certainty cannot authenticate a claim about God; its source and truth still have to be discerned.
When the prophet speaks in the nature of the LORD, if the word does not come to be, nor arrive, it is the word the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it in a boiling over. You shall not cower from him.Thus says the LORD of hosts, Do not hear and respond to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vapor. They speak a sight of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Beloved, do not lean your weight on every breath, but test the breaths, whether they come out of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.THE THREAD
And it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, God has given him into my hand; for he is shut up by coming into a town with doors and bolts.Saul reads David’s arrival as God giving him into Saul’s hand; the same נתן (natan, give, set, place) root and handoff image underlie the prophets’ forecast here. In both verses, a speaker frames an anticipated outcome as God’s act, showing how divine certainty can be attached to a claim before it is borne out.
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