What Does 1 Chronicles 29:24 Mean in the King James?
And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king.
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
“Submitted” carries the image of power bending under authority, so the mighty men’s strength becomes visible in the very posture that yields it.
THE MEANING
You meet the same structure whenever people with rank, strength, or inheritance take a common posture toward authority. The princes, mighty men, and David’s sons are not described as powerless; they submit themselves to Solomon, holding strength and yielding together. Kingship becomes publicly acknowledged through that shared bend.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that yielding always means losing strength: the mighty men remain mighty even as they submit.
THE ROOT
וַיִּכָּנְעוּ
wayyikkānaʿû
GROWS FROM
כ־נ־ע
To be humbled or subdued; to be brought low beneath another’s authority.
“submitted themselves” in this verse is wayyikkānaʿû. The Hebrew verb holds submission and humbling together: those with power lower themselves before Solomon. English can make submission sound like a mere change of rank, while the root shows a visible change of posture.
ALSO GROWS
kānaʿ: Be humbled or submit
כָּנַע
This is the root’s basic sense, linking the princes’ submission with the lowering of oneself.
hikhniʿa: Subdue or bring under
הִכְנִיעַ
This form shows the same root from the other side: one authority brings another under its rule.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shelomoh
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
To be whole or complete; the root associated with shalom, wholeness.
Solomon’s name shares its root consonants with shalom, meaning wholeness. The gathered submission is directed toward a king whose name carries that resonance of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This branch lets the name’s resonance open onto the idea of a whole and settled order.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch carries the same root’s sense of completeness into the scene of a people gathered under one king.
THE PATTERN
Authority becomes visible when those with strength and rank bend into a shared acknowledgment.
Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous.If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;THE THREAD
Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous.The same Hebrew root, כנע (kanaʿ), joins these scenes of rulers lowering themselves. Here princes and mighty men submit to Solomon; there, princes and a king humble themselves before the LORD, revealing the shared posture beneath both acts.
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