What Does 1 Kings 4:6 Mean?
And Ahishar was over the house; and Adoniram, son of Abda, was over the forced labor.
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 Ahishar was over the household: and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the tribute.THE KEY
The name “my lord is exalted” stands over tribute, placing royal elevation beside the burden it collects.
THE MEANING
This verse puts two sides of royal order in view: the household is managed, and tribute is collected. Adoniram’s name carries “my lord is exalted,” while his office gathers the levy; exaltation and the burden beneath it occupy the same sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a ruler’s elevation is weightless dissolves here: tribute stands beside exaltation, showing the burden attached to that height.
THE ROOT
אֲדֹנִירָם
Adoniram
GROWS FROM
רוּם
rum
To rise, be high, or be exalted.
Adoniram means “my lord is exalted”; its final element, רָם (ram), comes from רום (rum), “to be high.” The name of the man over tribute joins exaltation to the levy in a way the English line leaves implicit.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High, exalted.
רָם
This is the element in Adoniram’s name, so the verse places exaltation directly beside the office of collecting tribute.
marom: Height, high place.
מָרוֹם
It shows the root’s sense of elevation as a place or position, echoing the status carried in Adoniram’s name.
terumah: A contribution or offering lifted up.
תְּרוּמָה
This branch joins the idea of being raised with something contributed, resonating with the verse’s pairing of exaltation and tribute.
THE PATTERN
Royal elevation stands beside the labor and resources drawn from those under its rule.
And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons, and set them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men.But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, You know that those who are reckoned to rule over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.THE THREAD
And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men.Both verses use the same Hebrew word, מַס (mas), meaning a levy or compulsory taskwork. This verse names the official over that levy; the next shows its scale as thirty thousand men.
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