What Does 1 Kings 4:18 Mean?
Shimei, son of Elah, in Benjamin.
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
Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin:THE KEY
This line folds identity into more than a label: hearing, built lineage, and the image of the right hand are carried in its names.
THE MEANING
This verse presents identity as relational: Shimei’s name is joined to hearing, sonship to continuity, and Benjamin to the right-hand image. A life appears through what it hears, the line it comes through, and the place it inhabits.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעִי
Shimʿi
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen; the related call shema means hear and respond.
Shimei’s name carries the same root as hearing and the call to hear and respond. English gives a name, while the Hebrew sound holds an orientation toward listening.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This branch makes the name’s hearing more than sound received; it carries the possibility of an answer.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings; what is heard
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root also names a message received, joining the person’s name to the voice or report that reaches them.
בֵּן
ben
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, establish.
The word for son is linked to the root for building. In “son of Elah,” lineage carries the image of continuity built across generations.
ALSO GROWS
ben: Son
בֵּן
This is the verse’s word for son, carrying lineage through a root associated with building.
binyan: Building, structure
בִּנְיָן
This branch makes the root’s building image concrete: a son belongs to a continuing structure of relation.
בִּנְיָמִין
Binyamin
GROWS FROM
ימן
Right side, right hand.
Benjamin is heard as ben-yamin, “son of the right hand.” The place name carries an image of right-side strength alongside the person’s name.
ALSO GROWS
yamin: Right hand, right side
יָמִין
This is the right-hand element carried in the name Benjamin.
yemini: Right-handed, of the right side
יְמִינִי
This related form extends the right-side image from a place or direction to a quality.
THE PATTERN
Hearing in scripture joins receiving a voice with recognizing and answering it.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.Shimei carries the root שמע (sh-m-ʿ, shamaʿ: hear), which appears in Samuel’s answer, “thy servant heareth.” The shared root lets the name’s hidden sound become an explicit posture: hearing that is ready to answer.
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