What Does 1 Kings 14:25 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:
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 two narrows of Mitzrayim rise against Yerushalayim, showing that wholeness can be pressed without being erased.
THE MEANING
Constriction reaches the place named for wholeness; the verse lets the attack remain an attack, without pretending that what is whole cannot be pressed. Rehoboam’s name carries widening for the people, so narrowing is not the only movement present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Wholeness means no force can reach or wound you.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ר
To bind, press, or constrict; Mitzrayim carries the sense of the two narrows.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. The place-name holds narrowness inside it: the pressure in the verse is already present in the name Mitzrayim. English gives a country name, while Hebrew also lets you hear constriction approaching.
ALSO GROWS
metzar: A narrow place or distress.
מֵצַר
This is the narrow-place language echoed in Psalm 118:5, where distress gives way to a large place.
tsar: Narrow, or an adversary.
צַר
The same sound joins pressure with an opponent: the narrowness here arrives as a king coming against Jerusalem.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
To be whole, complete, or sound.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the sound of shalom, wholeness. The verse places that wholeness under real assault, showing that being whole does not mean being untouched by pressure.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, soundness.
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the nature carried by Jerusalem’s name even as the city is attacked.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
The branch keeps completeness in view without denying the violence of what comes against the city.
רְחַבְעָם
Reḥavʿam
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ב
To widen or make spacious; Rehoboam’s name carries the sense of widening for the people.
“Rehoboam” in this verse is Reḥavʿam. The king’s name holds enlargement beside Mitzrayim’s constriction and Jerusalem’s threatened wholeness. The verse’s names place narrowing and widening in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Wide, spacious.
רָחָב
The root names the opposite movement to the narrowness carried by Mitzrayim.
merchav: A broad or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This is the spaciousness named in Psalm 118:5 after the speaker calls from distress.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places constriction and spaciousness on one continuum, making the movement from distress toward wholeness visible.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.The Hebrew behind “distress” is מֵצַר (metzar, a narrow place), echoing Mitzrayim’s language of narrowing. Where 1 Kings shows that narrowing arriving as an assault on Jerusalem, the psalm names the movement into a רחָב (rachav, spacious) place.
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