What Does 1 Kings 11:6 Mean in the King James?
And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.
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 says Solomon did not “fill after” the LORD, the measure is whether following fills the life.
THE MEANING
The LORD sees evil as it is, and a life can be turned toward him without filling out that following. The verse names partial devotion as an incomplete direction, not wholeheartedness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that some Godward movement means the whole life follows God.
THE ROOT
מִלֵּא
millēʾ
GROWS FROM
מלא
Fill; be full.
“fully” in this verse is millēʾ. The Hebrew phrase is literally “did not fill after the LORD.” Fullness is built into the description of following: Solomon’s failure is not merely a lack of movement, but an unfilled pursuit.
ALSO GROWS
mālēʾ: Full; filled.
מָלֵא
The state of being full makes clear what the verse says Solomon’s following lacks.
millūy: Filling; fulfillment.
מִלּוּי
This branch carries the root’s sense of bringing something to its full measure, illuminating the verse’s contrast between partial and complete pursuit.
אַחֲרֵי
ʾaḥărê
GROWS FROM
אחר
ʾ-ḥ-r
Behind; after.
The word for “after” carries the sense of what is behind or follows. Beside the root for filling, it pictures devotion as a life taking its direction behind the LORD and being filled through in that direction.
ALSO GROWS
ʾaḥar: After; behind.
אַחַר
It preserves the spatial sense of following in the verse: the life takes its place behind the one it follows.
ʾaḥarīt: End; latter outcome.
אַחֲרִית
The root can also point to what comes after, linking a present direction with the outcome that follows from it.
THE PATTERN
Wholehearted devotion is pictured as a life filled through in the direction it follows.
Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God.Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.THE THREAD
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.Caleb’s “hath followed me fully” uses the same Hebrew construction, מלא אחרי (maleʾ ʾaḥărê), as Solomon’s incomplete following. The shared roots make the contrast visible: one life fills out its following after the LORD; the other does not.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us