What Does 1 Kings 13:9 Mean in the King James?
For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.
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 word of the LORD reaches past belief into appetite and direction: it determines what enters the body and whether the feet return by the familiar route.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word addresses the whole lived path, reaching what you take in and where your feet go. The instruction is concrete: bread and water are refused, and the familiar route back is closed. Here, hearing the word changes the body’s immediate course.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a word from God can remain inward while appetite and direction carry on unchanged.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, speech or word, and also a matter or thing.
English makes “word” sound separate from what happens next, but דָּבָר (davar, word or matter) can name both speech and a thing. Here the word takes form in eating, drinking, and the route taken.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken word is the same root in action; what is said here takes shape in the prophet’s immediate choices.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps the link between speech and concrete matters, echoing how this word governs both provision and movement.
תָּשׁוּב
tashuv
GROWS FROM
שוב
To turn back or return.
English “turn again” can sound like a minor navigation detail, while תָּשׁוּב (tashuv, you return) comes from שׁוּב (shuv, turn or return). The command closes off a return itself: the same way is not retraced.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Turning or return.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The same root names a turning back, showing that the barred action is a reversal of course.
shav: He returned or turned back.
שָׁב
This verb form makes the root’s motion explicit: the route is not simply revisited.
דֶּרֶךְ
derek
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step; a way is ground that is walked.
דֶּרֶךְ (derek, way or path) grows from דָּרַךְ (darak, tread). The verse’s route is more than an abstract direction: it is the ground already passed over, and the word forbids walking it again.
ALSO GROWS
darak: To tread or step.
דָּרַךְ
The verb reveals the bodily motion inside “way”: a path is made by feet moving across ground.
midrakh: A step or footing.
מִדְרָךְ
This related form keeps the path close to the place where a foot lands, sharpening the verse’s focus on the actual route.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s word orders both what sustains life and the path life takes.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.THE THREAD
After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.“The word of the LORD” repeats דָּבָר (davar, word or matter), the same Hebrew word found in this verse. In Genesis, that word meets Abram as assurance; here, it takes concrete shape in boundaries around food and travel.
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