What Does 1 Kings 13:2 Mean in the King James?
And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.
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 altar’s name grows from the root for sacrifice, and the prophecy turns that sacrificial place into the place where its priests’ bones are burned.
THE MEANING
The word of the LORD addresses the altar directly and names a child who will carry out its judgment. The place that receives incense also bears the priests and human bones burned upon it; the verse keeps the judgment brutally physical. The altar’s sacred role does not place it beyond the word spoken over it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that an altar is beyond judgment simply because it serves worship.
THE ROOT
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The Hebrew word for altar grows from the verb for sacrifice, carrying the altar’s ritual action within its name. That shared seed sharpens the prophecy’s reversal: the place of sacrifice becomes the place where human remains are burned.
ALSO GROWS
zevaḥ: Sacrifice; a slaughtered offering.
זֶבַח
This branch names the act the altar is built to receive, making the prophecy’s use of the altar as a site of judgment especially stark.
zōvēaḥ: One who sacrifices.
זֹבֵחַ
The word points to the people who perform the altar’s ritual, bringing the priests named in the verse into the same sacrificial vocabulary.
יַקְטִיר
yaqtir
GROWS FROM
קטר
To make smoke; to offer incense.
“offer / burn incense” in this verse is yaqtir. English uses “burn” for both incense and bones, but Hebrew uses this root for making incense smoke and a different verb for the bones’ burning. The verse holds ritual smoke beside human remains while keeping those acts distinct.
ALSO GROWS
qetōret: Incense.
קְטֹרֶת
This is the substance whose smoke rises in the altar’s ritual use.
maqtir: One who makes incense smoke; an incense burner.
מַקְטִיר
This branch names the priests by the ritual they perform before the verse places them under judgment.
THE PATTERN
A sacred structure’s name or purpose does not place it beyond judgment or destruction.
I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.THE THREAD
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.The word for altar here and altars there is מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbēaḥ), from זבח (zabach), sacrifice. The linked verse repeats the image of priests and men’s bones on the altars, making the prophecy’s reversal concrete.
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