What Does 1 Kings 11:40 Mean in the King James?
Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of 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 king whose name carries wholeness seeks death, and his target finds refuge in Mitzrayim, the two narrows.
THE MEANING
When danger closes around you, escape may lead into another constriction rather than spaciousness. The refuge is real, yet Egypt is Mitzrayim, the narrow place, so safety and constraint coexist. The shelter lasts until the source of pursuit dies.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that reaching safety means reaching freedom: Jeroboam is sheltered in Mitzrayim, but remains there until Solomon dies.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or constrain.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. The name carries the צַר (tsar, narrow) family with the dual ending אַיִם (ayim, “two”), reading as the two narrows. Jeroboam reaches shelter, but the refuge’s name keeps the constriction in view: survival here has not yet become spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight; an adversary.
צַר
The word holds both constriction and the one who presses in, joining the place of danger to the pressure that drives Jeroboam away.
metzar: A narrow place, strait, or distress.
מֵצַר
This branch gives the name Mitzrayim its spatial force: the fugitive reaches shelter that is still named by narrowness.
tsarah: Distress, trouble, adversity.
צָרָה
The constriction is both a place and an experience; refuge can arrive while distress has not yet fully ended.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shelomoh
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
“Solomon” in this verse is Shelomoh. Shelomoh bears the root of wholeness. Here the name tied to wholeness stands beside an intention to kill, exposing the gap between the nature carried in a name and the action of its bearer.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The name’s root evokes wholeness even as Solomon’s action threatens another person’s life.
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This branch sharpens the contrast between the wholeness in the name and the violence in the pursuit.
THE PATTERN
Flight can preserve life while the fugitive waits for lethal power to pass.
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.THE THREAD
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.Both verses pair בקש (baqash, seek) with ברח (barach, flee): a ruler seeks death, and the threatened man escapes. The same root pair links Moses’ flight to Jeroboam’s, revealing a recurring grammar of survival under lethal power.
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