What Does 1 Kings 1:28 Mean in the King James?

Then king David answered and said, Call me Bath-sheba. And she came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king.

1 Kings 1:28 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Bathsheba’s name carries an oath-echo, and the next thing David does is swear.

THE MEANING

The verse brings Bathsheba into David’s direct view: he summons her, and she stands before him herself. Hebrew repeats “before the king,” holding the encounter face-to-face rather than leaving her claim at a distance. Her name’s ⁨שֶׁבַע⁩ (sheva, “seven”) shares its consonants with the oath-root David speaks in the next verse.

THE ROOT

בַּת־שֶׁבַע

bat-sheva

GROWS FROM

שבע

The root’s word family includes “seven” and the verb for swearing an oath.

“Bath-sheba” in this verse is bat-sheva. Bathsheba is “daughter of seven”; the same consonants also form the oath-verb. Her name stands at the threshold of David’s oath in the following verse.

ALSO GROWS

sheva: seven

שֶׁבַע

This is the second element of Bath-sheba’s name: literally, “daughter of seven.”

nishbaʿ: swore; took an oath

נִשְׁבַּע

The same consonants form the oath-verb David uses in his declaration one verse later.

לִפְנֵי

lifnei

GROWS FROM

פנה

Turn; face toward.

The Hebrew repeats lifnei ha-melekh, “before the king,” in both clauses. The repetition keeps Bathsheba visibly face-to-face with the king.

ALSO GROWS

panim: face; presence

פָּנִים

Lifnei places Bathsheba before the king’s face, giving “presence” a direct, embodied sense.

panah: turn; face toward

פָּנָה

The root’s sense of turning toward resonates with her movement from being summoned to standing before the king.

קִרְאוּ

qir’u

GROWS FROM

קרא

Call; summon; proclaim.

David’s call gathers Bathsheba into the scene and brings her before him. The same root can name a gathering called together, linking a summons with making someone present to hear.

ALSO GROWS

qara: call; summon

קָרָא

Here the call brings Bathsheba into direct view of the king.

miqra: convocation; public reading

מִקְרָא

A miqra is a gathering called together, extending the root’s sense of calling into shared presence.

THE PATTERN

An oath turns a spoken commitment into publicly recognized, binding speech.

Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.

Genesis 21:31 · KJVThe place name preserves the oath the two speakers make together.

And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.

Joshua 9:15 · KJVThe oath binds the speakers to the treaty and to the Gibeonites’ lives.

For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

Hebrews 6:16 · KJVThe verse names an oath’s role in confirming a commitment and ending a dispute.

THE THREAD

And the king sware, and said, As the LORD liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress,

1 Kings 1:29 · KJV

Bathsheba’s name contains ⁨שֶׁבַע⁩ (sheva, “seven”), and the consonants ⁨שבע⁩ also form the oath-verb used here. David’s next line gives that name-echo a spoken form: he swears.

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