What Does 1 Kings 10:10 Mean in the King James?
And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
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 queen’s abundance becomes undeniable when it is placed in another’s hands.
THE MEANING
You encounter abundance here as something made visible through giving: gold, fragrant spices, and precious stones pass from one person’s hands to another. Its scale is unmatched, so what is shared becomes the measure by which this abundance is known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what leaves your hands simply vanishes is undone here: giving is what makes this abundance visible and memorable.
THE ROOT
וַתִּתֵּן
vattitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, put, or set in place.
“gave” in this verse is vattitten. The verb also means “put” or “set,” so the queen’s gift is wealth placed before another person. The noun מַתָּנָה (mattanah, gift) grows from the same seed, linking the act of giving to the thing given.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The gift noun shares the root of “gave,” joining the queen’s action to the abundance she places in the king’s hands.
natun: Given, set, or put in place.
נָתוּן
This form makes the root’s sense of placement visible: what is given is set before someone to receive.
THE PATTERN
Generosity lets abundance move outward, where its effects can multiply and return as overflow.
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:THE THREAD
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.The same נָתַן (natan, give or place) root appears in the queen’s gift and in “of thine own have we given thee.” This connection opens giving as something that moves onward from what has already been received.
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