What Does 1 Kings 14:12 Mean in the King James?
Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.
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 verse binds the child’s death to the woman’s arrival, making the city threshold the precise moment named by the prophecy.
THE MEANING
You stand inside a sentence where the woman is sent home and the child’s death is placed at the moment she enters the city. The words leave the loss bare and locate its timing at her arrival.
THE ROOT
בְבֹאָךְ
bevo’akha
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
Come, arrive, enter.
“enter” in this verse is bevo’akha. The Hebrew verb gathers her coming into the city into one act, and the child’s death is bound to that arrival. The KJV image of feet entering makes the threshold concrete; the Hebrew verb holds the whole arrival in view.
ALSO GROWS
baʾ: came, comes
בָּא
The basic form names arrival, the movement that sets the timing here.
heviʾ: brought, caused to come
הֵבִיא
This form shows the root can describe bringing something into a place, extending the sense of arrival.
mavo: entrance, entry
מָבוֹא
This noun names the point of entry that the verse makes the moment of the child’s death.
הַיָּלֶד
hayyeled
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
Beget, bear, bring forth.
The word for child grows from the root of bearing and begetting. The verse places one who has been brought forth directly beside the declared dying, holding birth and loss together without softening either.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: beget, bear
יָלַד
This verb names the bringing forth that stands behind the word for child.
toledot: generations, lineages
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This branch extends the root of birth into the succession of those brought forth.
moledet: birth, birthplace, kindred
מוֹלֶדֶת
This form keeps the root’s connection to birth and origin visible.
יָמוּת
yamut
GROWS FROM
מות
m-w-t
Die, be dead.
“die” in this verse is yamut. The verb states the outcome directly, with no figurative softening. Placed after the arrival clause, it makes the timing precise: her coming into the city is when the child dies.
ALSO GROWS
mavet: death
מָוֶת
The noun names the outcome expressed by the verb in this verse.
met: dead, a dead person
מֵת
This form describes the state that follows the verse’s stated event.
mot: to die, dying
מוֹת
This form keeps the action of dying visible alongside the noun for death.
THE PATTERN
A declared word carries its consequence to its appointed moment.
And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.And Jeroboam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died;THE THREAD
And Jeroboam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died;The same בוא (b-w-ʾ, “come, arrive, enter”) root appears in both verses: here the child’s death is bound to her coming into the city, and in verse 17 her coming to Tirzah reaches the threshold as the child dies. The repeated arrival verb makes the prophecy’s timing visible in its fulfillment.
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