What Does 1 Chronicles 11:20 Mean in the King James?
And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three: for lifting up his spear against three hundred, he slew them, and had a name among the three.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Abishai’s place among the three is bound to an awakened spear: his name is made through an act of lethal force.
THE MEANING
The verse places Abishai’s standing among the three beside the act that defines it: he stirs his spear against three hundred and kills them. His name carries the violence by which he is known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the idea that a name is only a label detached from action: here, Abishai’s renown is bound to a deed and to the three hundred dead.
THE ROOT
עוֹרֵר
ʿorer
GROWS FROM
ע־ו־ר
To wake, rouse, or stir into activity.
“lifting up” in this verse is ʿorer. The Hebrew verb also carries the sense of rousing or stirring into action. The spear is not merely raised; it is awakened against its targets, and the verse ties that lethal act to Abishai’s renown.
ALSO GROWS
ʿur: To wake or awaken.
עוּר
This basic form shows the root’s sense of bringing something out of inactivity.
heʿir: To awaken or rouse.
הֵעִיר
This causative form makes the act of stirring something into motion explicit, sharpening the force of the spear image.
THE PATTERN
A name becomes the public shape of what a person does.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by.Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?THE THREAD
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?Isaiah repeats the same root עוּר in the summons, “Awake, awake,” language of rousing strength into action. That shared root sharpens the account of Abishai: his spear is roused, and the result is explicitly lethal.
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