What Does 1 Kings 5:4 Mean?
But now the LORD my God has given me rest all around, and there is neither an adversary nor evil encounter.
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
But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.THE KEY
The verse defines rest as a cleared perimeter, where neither an adversary nor a harmful encounter occupies the space around you.
THE MEANING
The LORD your God gives you rest on every side; no adversary and no harmful encounter occupies the space around you. This is a settled condition in which what opposes and injures has fallen away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that rest is only a lull between attacks: here the verse names the adversary and the harmful encounter as absent from the surrounding space.
THE ROOT
הֵנִיחַ
hēnîaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
To rest or settle; in this form, to cause someone to rest.
“has given me rest” in this verse is hēnîaḥ. The verb presents rest as something settled upon you, not merely a gap between conflicts. Its surrounding phrase, “on every side,” makes that rest a space cleared of opposition and harm.
ALSO GROWS
menûḥāh: Rest or a place of repose.
מְנוּחָה
This noun from the same root makes rest a condition one can inhabit, matching the verse’s picture of space settled all around you.
Nōaḥ: A name linked to the same root for rest.
נֹחַ
Genesis 5:29 also echoes the name with נָחַם (nāḥam, “comfort”), a different root; the sound-play adds an association without making the roots identical.
שָׂטָן
śāṭān
GROWS FROM
שׂטן
To oppose or act as an adversary.
Here the word has no article, so it means “an adversary”: the verse names opposition as a role that is absent from the space of rest. The root points to someone standing against you, not to hardship in the abstract.
ALSO GROWS
haśśāṭān: The adversary or accuser.
הַשָּׂטָן
In Job 1:6 the article marks “the adversary”; here the word is without it, naming an adversary rather than requiring a fixed identity.
ləśāṭān: An opponent or one who stands against another.
לְשָׂטָן
In Numbers 22:22 the angel of the LORD stands in the way “for an adversary” against Balaam, showing the word describes an opposing role.
פֶּגַע רָע
pēgaʿ rāʿ
GROWS FROM
פגע
To meet or encounter; in some forms, to strike against or intercede.
“evil encounter” in this verse is pēgaʿ rāʿ. The English “occurrent” can sound like a neutral event, while פֶּגַע carries the sense of contact or impact. With רָע (rāʿ, “harmful, evil”), it names a damaging encounter, so the verse excludes injury as well as opposition.
ALSO GROWS
pāgaʿ: To meet or come into contact with someone or something.
פָּגַע
The root names an encounter itself; here רָע marks the encounter as harmful.
yafgîaʿ: He intervenes or intercedes for another.
יַפְגִּיעַ
Isaiah 53:12 uses this form for intercession, extending the root’s sense of contact into an intervention on someone’s behalf.
THE PATTERN
God-given rest is a protected space in which surrounding threat no longer sets the terms.
And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people, from now to the ages.Therefore a Sabbath settling remains for the people of God.THE THREAD
But when you go over the Jordan and settle in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you settle in safety;This verse uses the same נוח root in the same “give rest” form, and likewise places that rest against surrounding enemies. The shared root reveals rest as a condition given by the LORD in which threat no longer encircles you.
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