What Does 1 Kings 7:40 Mean?
And Hiram made the basins, and the shovels, and the sprinkling bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work that he made for king Solomon, for the house 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 Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the house of the LORD:THE KEY
The ending is visible in the finished vessels: completion takes material shape.
THE MEANING
Work reaches completion, and that completion can be seen in what has been made: basins, shovels, and bowls. The task has a boundary, and its finished objects remain.
THE ROOT
וַיְכַל
vayekhal
GROWS FROM
כלה
to be complete, finish, or come to an end
The verb וַיְכַל (vayekhal, “he finished”) gives the work a clear boundary: it reaches completion. This root can also describe something spent or consumed, so an ending is the process reaching its limit and becoming complete.
ALSO GROWS
killah: completed, finished
כִּלָּה
This form uses the same כ־ל־ה root to describe bringing work to completion.
nikhlah: was consumed, spent, or came to an end
נִכְלָה
This form retains the same root consonants; its sense of being spent shows the root’s connection between reaching an end and being consumed.
THE PATTERN
Completion becomes visible through the work that reaches its finished form.
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.The LORD finishes what concerns me; your faithful love, O LORD, endures for the ages; do not let the works of your hands drop.When Jesus had taken the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and handed over his breath.THE THREAD
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.Genesis 2:2 uses the same Hebrew verb וַיְכַל (vayekhal, “he finished”), from the root כלה. There, as here, work reaches its completion; the finished work makes the ending visible.
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