What Does 1 Kings 6:19 Mean?
And the innermost room he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
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 the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.THE KEY
The room called “oracle” echoes the Hebrew root for “word,” placing the covenant at the house’s innermost place of speech.
THE MEANING
The verse pictures your innermost life as a place where covenant is kept. The ark rests in the deepest room of the house, a place whose name is associated with speech and oracle.
THE ROOT
דְּבִיר
dĕbîr
GROWS FROM
דבר
D-B-R
To speak or declare; the root also forms words for speech and utterance.
“innermost room” in this verse is dĕbîr. The Hebrew word translated “oracle” is debir, the name of the innermost chamber, and its consonants echo dabar, “word” or “speech.” English separates the room from the word, while Hebrew lets the room’s name suggest a place where speech is heard; here the ark of the covenant is set at that center.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word, speech, or matter
דָּבָר
It shares the D-B-R root with debir, linking the chamber’s name with the word or utterance associated with it.
dibbēr: Spoke or declared
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes the root’s speaking sense clear; Exodus 25:22 uses it when God says, “I will commune with thee” above the ark.
THE PATTERN
The dwelling that holds what is set apart at its center becomes a place of meeting and speech.
And there I meet with you, and I speak with you from above the covering, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the witness, all that I command you to the children of Israel.For in the day of harm he stores me away in his booth; he hides me in the hiding place of his tent; he lifts me high upon a rock.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.THE THREAD
And there I meet with you, and I speak with you from above the covering, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the witness, all that I command you to the children of Israel.The word behind “oracle,” debir, echoes the D-B-R root of dabar, “word,” and dibbēr, “speak.” Exodus makes that echo audible: God meets and speaks from above the ark that 1 Kings places in the debir, the innermost chamber.
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