What Does 1 Kings 5:14 Mean?
And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by turns; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months in his house, and Adoniram was over the levy.
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 he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy.THE KEY
The Hebrew behind “courses” makes this a cycle of changes: each worker is sent away for a month, then returns home for two.
THE MEANING
You see a labor system governed by turns: one month in Lebanon, two at home, with Adoniram overseeing the levy. The schedule gives the work a boundary and a return home, while the levy and its overseer keep the burden visible.
THE ROOT
חֲלִיפוֹת
chalifot
GROWS FROM
חלף
ḥ-l-p
to pass on, change, or replace
English “courses” can sound like routes, while חלף (ḥ-l-p, to change or pass on) points to turns that succeed one another. Here, each month away gives way to two months at home: the levy is arranged as rotation, though that rhythm does not erase the burden.
ALSO GROWS
ḥalaf: to pass on, change, or succeed
חָלַף
The work period passes, giving way to the next turn in the schedule.
ḥalifah: a change or exchange, including a change of clothing
חֲלִיפָה
The word carries the sense of one state giving way to another, as the workers move between Lebanon and home.
taḥalifem: you change them
תַּחֲלִיפֵם
This form appears in Psalm 102:26, where garments are changed; the same root makes the changing of turns audible beneath “courses.”
וַיִּשְׁלָחֵם
vayishlechem
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
to send forth, release, or extend
The root of “sent” carries the sense of sending forth and releasing. Here the workers are sent to Lebanon within a schedule that also names their return home, so the departure has a defined turn.
ALSO GROWS
shillaḥ: he sent away or released
שִׁלַּח
The same root can name sending away; this verse shows the workers sent out to labor for a bounded period.
shulchan: table, an extended surface for provision
שֻׁלְחָן
The root’s reach toward an extended table brings provision into view alongside the labor sent forth to sustain life.
THE PATTERN
Labor is arranged in turns that make room for rest and return.
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall stop, that your ox and your donkey may settle, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.And he said to them, Come away by yourselves into an empty place, and rest a while, for many were coming and going, and they did not have a well-timed moment even to eat.THE THREAD
They perish, but you stand. All of them wear thin like a garment; as a robe you exchange them, and they are exchanged.The root חלף (ḥ-l-p, to change or pass on) underlies both “courses” and “change” here. Psalm 102 uses it for changing a garment, opening the rota as a succession of turns: each month passes and gives way to another.
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