What Does 1 Kings 14:11 Mean in the King James?
Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it.
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 city and the field offer two settings, but the same eating verb gives both the same exposed end.
THE MEANING
This verse leaves no protected place for the dead: in the city and in the field alike, scavengers feed on the body. The judgment is bodily and public, stripping even burial from the dead.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A change of place can shelter someone from what has been spoken.
THE ROOT
יֹאכְלוּ
yoʾkhelū
GROWS FROM
א־כ־ל
ʾ-k-l
eat, consume
“eat” in this verse is yoʾkhelū. The same verb appears for both the city and the field; only the scavengers change. The root also forms the word for food, making the body’s exposure as something consumed part of the verse’s force.
ALSO GROWS
ʾokhel: food; that which is eaten
אֹכֶל
The food word grows from the same root as the dogs’ and birds’ eating, joining the action to what the body becomes in the scene.
maʾakhal: food; something edible
מַאֲכָל
This related form carries the same root into the idea of what can be consumed, sharpening the verse’s image of the body left exposed.
דִּבֵּר
dibber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
speak, utter
The root also names a word or matter, so the closing line holds the LORD’s utterance and the matter before the reader in one word-family. The judgment is presented as already spoken, not as an uncertain threat.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: word; matter; affair
דָּבָר
The noun joins speech with the matter being spoken of, echoing the verse’s movement from declaration to the body’s fate.
dəvārīm: words; matters; things
דְּבָרִים
The plural carries the same word-family across both utterances and matters, keeping the closing declaration tied to what unfolds.
THE PATTERN
When judgment leaves the dead without human burial, scavengers make the body’s exposure visible.
And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.THE THREAD
Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.The same אָכַל (ʾākal, “eat”) appears in this mirrored sentence: city and field divide the setting, while the verb keeps the outcome the same. Its repetition makes the two scenes read as one declared fate.
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