What Does 1 Kings 3:16 Mean?
Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him.
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 came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.THE KEY
Before their story is heard, the women stand in the place where judgment can happen.
THE MEANING
Two women, each identified as a harlot, come to the king and stand before him. The verse places them in the space where a decision can be made, before either has spoken.
THE ROOT
וַתַּעֲמֹדְנָה
vata'amodnah
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
To stand, take a position, or remain.
“stood” in this verse is vata'amodnah. The verb carries more than physical posture: the women take their place before the king, present in the space of judgment. The same root forms words for a standing support and a person’s position, joining presence with the place one occupies.
ALSO GROWS
ʿammûd: Pillar or column
עָמוּד
A pillar is something that stands; this branch echoes the women’s upright presence before the king.
maʿămād: Position or standing
מַעֲמָד
The women are not only arriving; they occupy a position before the authority who can hear their case.
THE PATTERN
A matter enters judgment when the people within it stand before those able to hear it.
And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the lifted ones, and before all the assembly, at the opening of the tent of meeting, saying,Then both men, between whom the strife is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;But why do you judge your brother? And why do you make nothing of your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Then both men, between whom the strife is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;Both verses use עמד (ʿamad), “stand,” to place people directly before authority. Deuteronomy states the judicial pattern; 1 Kings gives it a scene, with two women standing before the king.
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