What Does 1 Kings 1:9 Mean in the King James?
And Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by En-rogel, and called all his brethren the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah the king’s servants:
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 slaughter is a public act of allegiance: Adonijah turns sacrifice into a feast that gathers the king’s household and Judah around his claim.
THE MEANING
A claim to rule takes shape in the company gathered around it: the king’s sons and Judah’s servants share the sacrificial feast Adonijah sets out. The verse shows belonging and allegiance made visible through invitation and slaughter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A bid for rule begins only when someone takes the throne. Here Adonijah’s claim is already taking shape in the feast and the company he gathers.
THE ROOT
וַיִּזְבַּח
vayyizbach
GROWS FROM
זבח
zabach
Slaughter for sacrifice.
The Hebrew verb carries the sense of sacrificial slaughter, giving the feast a ritual dimension that “slew” alone can obscure. The slaughter is part of how Adonijah makes his claim visible to the gathered company.
ALSO GROWS
zebach: Sacrifice; a slaughtered offering or sacrificial meal.
זֶבַח
It shows the sacrificial character within the act of slaughter.
mizbeach: Altar.
מִזְבֵּחַ
The altar is the place associated with sacrifice, linking the root to a public ritual act.
וַיִּקְרָא
vayyiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
Call, summon, or proclaim.
“called” in this verse is vayyiqra. The call gathers more than guests: it assembles witnesses to Adonijah’s act. The root’s range includes proclamation, so the guest list gives the feast a public voice.
ALSO GROWS
qeri'ah: Calling, summons, or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
It carries the sound of a call made public.
miqra: Assembly or convocation; also a reading.
מִקְרָא
It shows how calling can gather people into an assembly.
אֲדֹנִיָּהוּ
Adoniyahu
GROWS FROM
אדן
adan
Lord or master.
Adonijah’s name means “YHWH is my Lord,” placing the language of lordship in the name itself. In this verse, he gathers the king’s sons and Judah’s servants around a feast that makes his own claim to rule visible.
ALSO GROWS
adon: Lord or master.
אָדוֹן
It supplies the lordship element in Adonijah’s name.
Adonai: Lord; my Lord.
אֲדֹנָי
It shares the root’s language of lordship.
THE PATTERN
A sacrificial meal makes belonging and allegiance visible through who gathers and eats.
Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount.Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount.Genesis 31:54 uses the same root, זבח, for Jacob’s sacrifice, followed by a meal with his brethren. The repeated root shows slaughter leading into a gathered meal, making Adonijah’s feast part of how his claim is enacted.
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