What Does 1 Kings 14:4 Mean in the King James?
And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.
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 same Hebrew verb says she “arose” and his eyes “were set”: she moves toward the seer while his sight has come to a standstill.
THE MEANING
You can arrive seeking sight and find that the one you came to cannot see. One Hebrew root holds her rising beside his eyes standing, setting movement next to sight dimmed by age. The verse lets that limit remain in view.
THE ROOT
וַתָּקָם
vattāqām
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
Rise, stand, or be established.
“arose / were set” in this verse is vattāqām. The woman “arose” and Ahijah’s eyes “stood” use forms of the same root. English separates her movement from his fixed sight, while Hebrew lets the two actions echo each other in one scene.
ALSO GROWS
heqim: Raise, set up, or establish.
הֵקִים
This causative branch makes the root’s movement from standing to being set in place explicit.
maqom: Place; a standing place.
מָקוֹם
The word for a place carries the same root, connecting where someone stands with the act of standing.
לִרְאוֹת
lirot
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra’ah
See, look, or perceive.
The verse names a literal inability to see, and the same root can also describe perceiving or regarding. That wider range deepens the word without making Ahijah’s physical blindness into a metaphor.
ALSO GROWS
ro’eh: A seer; one who sees.
רֹאֶה
The branch names a person by the act of seeing, fitting the contrast between Ahijah’s role as a seer and his impaired sight.
mar’eh: Appearance or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This branch names what is seen, extending the same root from the act of seeing to its visible object.
THE PATTERN
Scripture holds bodily sight and perception in the same language, so impaired eyes do not settle every question of who sees.
And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.THE THREAD
And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?Ahijah’s inability to see and Hagar’s words “Thou God seest me” draw on the same root, ראה (ra’ah), “to see.” One verse names the limits of a human seer’s eyes; the other gives Hagar the language of being seen.
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