What Does 1 Kings 14:21 Mean in the King James?

And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

1 Kings 14:21 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Jerusalem is defined by the LORD’s nature set there, while a king’s reign is counted.

THE MEANING

The verse sets visible rule beside a deeper identity: Jerusalem bears the LORD’s name, his nature. Naamah’s Ammonite origin also places the royal family within a story that crosses tribal borders.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that whoever holds power defines a place’s deepest identity; the verse locates that identity in the LORD’s choice and the Name set there.

THE ROOT

לָשׂוּם

lasum

GROWS FROM

שׂים

s-y-m

to set, place, or put

“put” in this verse is lasum. The verb says the Name is set in a place. ⁨שְׁמוֹ⁩ (shemō, “his name,” carrying his nature) stands beside ⁨שָׁם⁩ (shām, “there”): the same ⁨ש־ם⁩ consonant shape lets nature and location echo one another.

ALSO GROWS

sām: set or placed

שָׂם

This form makes the act concrete: the Name is placed in the city.

yāsîm: he will set or place

יָשִׂים

The same root describes setting something in a chosen location, as the verse does with the Name.

יְרוּשָׁלַיִם

Yerushalayim

GROWS FROM

שׁלם

sh-l-m

to be whole or complete

“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name carries shalom, wholeness, with the dual ending -ayim opening the image toward twofold wholeness. Here that wholeness belongs to the city chosen to bear the LORD’s nature.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: wholeness, well-being

שָׁלוֹם

It reveals the city’s name as more than a location: it evokes the wholeness associated with the Name placed there.

shalem: whole or complete

שָׁלֵם

This branch makes the city’s wholeness a state of completeness, not merely a royal address.

THE PATTERN

The divine name is the nature made present in a chosen place and among people.

But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:

Deuteronomy 12:5 · KJVThe chosen place bears the Name through the same act of setting it there.

And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

Exodus 34:5 · KJVThe Name is proclaimed as a presence made known, not left as a bare label.

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

John 17:26 · KJVThe declared Name takes form as love present within people.

THE THREAD

But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:

Deuteronomy 12:5 · KJV

This repeats the verse’s structure: a place is chosen, and the LORD’s Name is put there. The shared verb ⁨לָשׂוּם⁩ (lasum, “to place”) shows the city bearing the Name as a recurring pattern, not an incidental detail of a reign.

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