What Does 1 Kings 1:40 Mean in the King James?
And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.
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
The people’s shared joy is pictured as a sound that splits the earth open.
THE MEANING
When joy is shared, it becomes audible and embodied, moving through people, instruments, and the space around them. The verse gives that communal sound the force of an opening, as if the ground itself splits beneath it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that joy is only private and weightless; here it gathers bodies, makes music, and seems to alter the ground beneath a crowd.
THE ROOT
וַתִּבָּקַע
wattibbāqaʿ
GROWS FROM
בקע
b-q-ʿ
To split, cleave, or break open.
“rent” in this verse is wattibbāqaʿ. The root means split open, so the land is not merely shaken by the sound; it is pictured as breaking open beneath it. A related word for a broad valley carries the image of an opening in the landscape.
ALSO GROWS
bāqaʿ: To split or break open.
בָּקַע
This is the verb behind “rent,” giving the celebration the image of an opening in the earth.
biqʿāh: A valley or broad plain.
בִּקְעָה
This landscape word from the same root evokes an opening in the land, linking the verse’s rupture with space made open.
וּשְׂמֵחִים
usmeḥim
GROWS FROM
שׂמח
ś-m-ḥ
To rejoice or be glad.
“rejoiced” in this verse is usmeḥim. Hebrew uses the same root for the people’s rejoicing and for the “great joy” that follows. The repeated seed makes gladness both something they do and something that fills the scene.
ALSO GROWS
śāmaḥ: To rejoice or be glad.
שָׂמַח
This verb names the people’s shared action, not only an inward feeling.
śimḥāh: Joy or gladness.
שִׂמְחָה
This noun repeats the root in “great joy,” echoing the rejoicing as the substance of the moment.
THE PATTERN
Shared rejoicing becomes a public sound that gathers many voices into one event.
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.THE THREAD
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.The Hebrew verb behind “rent” here and “divided” in Exodus comes from the same root, בקע (bāqaʿ), meaning to split open. At the sea, the split opens a passage through water; in the procession, the image is the earth opening beneath the people’s sound.
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