What Does 1 Kings 14:17 Mean in the King James?
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 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
Hebrew repeats the root בוא, “come/enter”: she comes to Tirzah, then in her coming to the threshold the boy dies, making the doorway the verse’s point of impact.
THE MEANING
The mother reaches the house, and the boy dies at that precise point. The boundary between outside and inside becomes where return meets irreversible grief; the verse lets that loss stand plainly.
THE ROOT
בוא
bôʾ
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
To come, enter, arrive.
“came” in this verse is bôʾ. The verse uses this root for her coming to Tirzah and again for “her coming” to the house threshold. That repetition makes arrival more than a backdrop: the exact moment of entering is where the loss becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
bôʾ: To come or go in.
בּוֹא
The root holds arrival and entry together, fitting a scene where reaching the house also means crossing its threshold.
māḇōʾ: An entrance or entryway.
מָבוֹא
This branch makes the root’s spatial sense visible: the repeated coming brings her to the house’s point of entry.
THE PATTERN
At a boundary, a household or community confronts death at the point of entry or exit.
For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.THE THREAD
Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.Here another mother meets the death of her son at a boundary: he is carried out through the city gate as Jesus approaches. In 1 Kings the mother reaches the threshold as her child dies; Luke’s scene soon turns that encounter toward life (Luke 7:14–15).
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