What Does 1 Kings 11:36 Mean in the King James?
And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.
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 echoes “my name” and “there” in the same consonants, binding God’s nature to the place where David’s lamp remains.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of a light that remains before God even when what is left has narrowed to one tribe. That light is kept in the place chosen to bear God’s name, God’s nature made present. In Hebrew, “my name there” brings identity and place close together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A promise is not lost simply because only a small remnant remains.
THE ROOT
לָשׂוּם
lasum
GROWS FROM
שׂים
sim
To put, set, or establish something in a place.
The phrase לָשׂוּם שְׁמִי שָׁם (lasum shemi sham, “to put my name there”) sets placing beside identity and location. “My name” (shem) and “there” (sham) echo the consonants ש־ם, so the city is more than a chosen location: it bears the nature represented by the name.
ALSO GROWS
sam: He put or placed.
שָׂם
This form shows the root as a completed act of setting something in place.
yasim: He will place or set.
יָשִׂים
The same root can describe placing something in the future, as the verse presents God’s name set in Jerusalem.
נִיר
nir
GROWS FROM
נר
ner
Lamp: a flame that gives light and can be kept burning.
The Hebrew word pictures a lamp, not only light as an abstract idea. David’s lamp is a continuing sign of life and presence, kept before God through a narrowed line.
ALSO GROWS
ner: Lamp.
נֵר
This form names the lamp itself, making the verse’s image of enduring light concrete.
menorah: Lampstand.
מְנוֹרָה
The lampstand holds lamps in place, echoing the image of light maintained rather than momentary.
בָּחַרְתִּי
bacharti
GROWS FROM
בחר
bachar
To choose or select.
The root makes the city’s chosen status an act that gives it a distinct place and purpose. Jerusalem is chosen as the place where God’s name is set, and where David’s lamp remains before God.
ALSO GROWS
bachar: To choose or select.
בָּחַר
This is the root verb behind the verse’s “I have chosen.”
bachir: Chosen one.
בָּחִיר
This form carries the root from the act of choosing to the one or thing selected.
THE PATTERN
Light becomes a sign of life and continuity that remains visible through threat and darkness.
But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel.There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.THE THREAD
Nevertheless for David’s sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:The “lamp” is the same Hebrew image used for David in 1 Kings 11:36. This verse names its shape: a son follows him in Jerusalem, where the lamp and the chosen place belong together.
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