What Does 1 Kings 7:8 Mean?
And his house, where he settled, had another court within the porch, which was of like work. Solomon also made a house for the daughter of the Great House, whom he had taken to wife, like this porch.
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 his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken to wife, like unto this porch.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses the same root for the porch’s “work” and the house Solomon “made,” so the second house carries the first design forward in the very language of making.
THE MEANING
You see a pattern move through separate spaces: an inner court echoes the porch, and another house is shaped to match it. The verse links workmanship with the act of making, showing how one design can be carried into another dwelling.
THE ROOT
מַעֲשֶׂה
maʿaseh
GROWS FROM
עשה
Do, make, or carry out.
The word translated “work” shares its root with the verb translated “made” later in the verse. English separates the design from the act of making; Hebrew joins them, so the second house’s resemblance to the porch is also a continuation of its making.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: Work, deed, or workmanship.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This is the word for the workmanship the second court shares with the porch.
yaʿaseh: He makes; here, “made.”
יַעֲשֶׂה
This is the verb describing Solomon making the other house, from the same root as “work.”
אַחֶרֶת
acheret
GROWS FROM
אחר
Come after or behind; be other or another.
“another” in this verse is acheret. The “other” court is placed within the porch, so it is distinct yet nested within a larger design. The Hebrew word-family also carries the sense of what follows, giving the sequence of spaces a relation English leaves less visible.
ALSO GROWS
acher: Other, another.
אַחֵר
It shares the same root as the verse’s “another court.”
acharei: After, behind, or following.
אַחֲרֵי
The root’s sense of following sits alongside the court’s place as an additional space within the porch.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shelomoh
GROWS FROM
שלם
Be whole, complete, or sound.
Solomon’s name grows from the same root as shalom, the language of wholeness. Here, the repeated design draws that name-nature alongside a pair of houses made to resemble one another.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch makes the wholeness carried in Solomon’s name audible in the verse.
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
It shares the name’s root and echoes the verse’s image of a coherent design repeated across spaces.
THE PATTERN
A built design can travel from one space to another through repeated making.
According to all that I show you, the form of the dwelling and the form of all its vessels, so you make it.And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams.who serve in a tracing and a shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned by God when he was about to finish the tent. For look, he says, "Make all things according to the impression shown to you on the mountain."THE THREAD
According to all that I show you, the form of the dwelling and the form of all its vessels, so you make it.Exodus uses the same עשה root for “make” that links “work” and “made” here, alongside a pattern that is carried into what is built. The shared root reveals a recurring movement: design continues by being made again.
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