What Does 1 Kings 14:23 Mean in the King James?

For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

1 Kings 14:23 · 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.

THE KEY

The verse portrays devotion as something that can claim an entire landscape, from exposed hilltops to the shade beneath every green tree.

THE MEANING

Here, devotion takes built form: raised sites, standing pillars, and Asherah symbols occupy every kind of terrain. The spread from high hills to the shade of every green tree makes the landscape itself a place where allegiance is marked.

THE ROOT

וַיִּבְנוּ

vayivnu

GROWS FROM

בנה

b-n-h

banah (⁨בָּנָה⁩): to build or build up.

“built” in this verse is vayivnu. The verb names more than putting objects in place: Hebrew also uses this root for building up a household. Here, devotion becomes a constructed environment that people can inhabit and repeat.

ALSO GROWS

binyan: building, structure

בִּנְיָן

This related noun makes the built character of the worship sites explicit: they form structures within the landscape.

mivneh: structure, form

מִבְנֶה

This branch shows how the root can describe an arrangement or shape, illuminating how the verse presents devotion as a landscape-wide arrangement.

מַצֵּבוֹת

matzevot

GROWS FROM

נצב

n-ts-b

natsav (⁨נָצַב⁩): to stand, take a position, or be stationed.

“images” in this verse is matzevot. The word matzevot refers to standing pillars or monuments. Its root gives the objects a physical presence: they are set upright as fixed markers, giving devotion a place to stand across the landscape.

ALSO GROWS

nitsav: standing, positioned

נִצָּב

This form carries the root’s sense of being set in place, clarifying the upright, stationed quality of the pillars.

matsav: position, station

מַצָּב

This noun connects standing objects with fixed positions, echoing how the verse places these markers across hills and beneath trees.

THE PATTERN

When devotion takes the form of human-made objects and sites, those forms occupy the places where allegiance is enacted.

Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:

Deuteronomy 12:2 · KJVThe same landscape of high ground and green trees appears as a network of places where worship is enacted.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

Psalm 115:4 · KJVThe verse makes visible the human-made character of the objects through which devotion is expressed.

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Romans 1:23 · KJVHere, human-made images give visible form to what people honor, extending the same pattern beyond particular sites.

THE THREAD

And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

Genesis 16:2 · KJV

Both verses share ⁨בנה⁩ (banah, “build”): here, people build worship sites; in Genesis 16:2, Sarai says “obtain children,” while the Hebrew phrase means “be built up through her.” The same root reaches from erected places to the hoped-for building of a household.

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