What Does 1 Kings 11:16 Mean in the King James?
(For six months did Joab remain there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom:)
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 root beneath “cut off” also appears in “cutting” a covenant, so Hebrew holds eradication and covenant-making in one image of severance.
THE MEANING
This verse confronts you with the full scope of a six-month campaign: Joab and all Israel remain until every male in Edom is cut off. Its violence names an entire male population as the target.
THE ROOT
הַכְרִית
hakhrît
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
to cut, sever, or cut off
“cut off” in this verse is hakhrît. The same root appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית (kārat berît, “cut a covenant”), so Hebrew lets cutting name both a covenant rite and the elimination of a people. Here, the object, every male in Edom, makes the verb’s violence concrete.
ALSO GROWS
kārat berît: Literally “cut a covenant”; idiomatically, make a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same root appears in covenant-making, revealing that its cutting image can mark a binding rite as well as violent removal.
nikrat: Be cut off; be severed.
נִכְרַת
This form preserves the image of severing and shows how the root can describe a person or group being removed.
THE PATTERN
The Hebrew root כרת (kārat, cut or sever) carries the image of cutting into both removal and covenant-making, with the object determining its force.
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:The Hebrew phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (kārat berît, “cut a covenant”) uses the same root כרת (kārat, cut or sever) found in “cut off” here. The shared image makes the violent force of the root visible without equating the two acts.
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