What Does 1 Kings 10:6 Mean in the King James?
And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
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 Hebrew term דָּבָר (dābār, “word/matter”) lies beneath both “report” and “acts,” so the words about a life and the matters of that life share one root.
THE MEANING
A report reaches you as words, while the life it describes has substance that can be encountered. This verse holds what is heard together with what is done, showing truth as an account that corresponds to a person’s visible wisdom and deeds.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A report is only talk, separate from the reality it describes.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, word, matter, or affair.
“report / acts” in this verse is dābār. English separates “report” from “acts”; Hebrew places both under דָּבָר (dābār, word/matter), with the report as דָּבָר (dābār, word/matter) and “acts” as דְּבָרִים (devarim, matters/affairs). The repeated root binds what is said about a life to the concrete matters that make the account true.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, speech, or matter.
דָּבָר
The verse calls the report a דָּבָר (dābār, word/matter), making the heard account itself a matter that can be true.
devarim: Words, matters, or affairs.
דְּבָרִים
The king’s “acts” are דְּבָרִים (devarim, matters/affairs), so the account and the realities it describes share the same root.
THE PATTERN
A heard word gains its full measure when what is seen confirms and exceeds the report.
Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.In both verses, דָּבָר (dābār, word/matter) names speech with substance: a report about deeds here and the LORD’s spoken word as what sustains life there. That shared root links what is heard to what is real enough to live by.
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