What Does 1 Kings 16:17 Mean in the King James?
And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.
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 root of “besieged” also yields the image of a rock or stronghold: a boundary can shelter one side and confine the other.
THE MEANING
Power becomes enclosure here: Omri and all Israel gather around Tirzah until the city is under siege. The verse speaks now wherever collective force turns a lived place into a perimeter and narrows the space in which its people can move.
THE ROOT
וַיָּצֻרוּ
wayyāṣurû
GROWS FROM
צור
To enclose or confine; here, to lay siege.
“besieged” in this verse is wayyāṣurû. This root puts the city’s boundary at the center of the violence. מָצוֹר names siegeworks, while the related noun צוּר can mean rock or stronghold: enclosure can be refuge or confinement.
ALSO GROWS
māṣôr: Siege, siegeworks
מָצוֹר
It names the built form of enclosure behind the verb: the city is held by a ring.
ṣûr: Rock, stronghold
צוּר
Its protective sense shows the other face of enclosure: a boundary can shelter those within, while this verse makes that boundary a weapon.
תִּרְצָה
Tirṣāh
GROWS FROM
רצה
To be pleased with, accept, or favor.
Tirzah’s name is commonly connected with the language of pleasure or favor. The name’s note of what is pleasing stands beside the hard fact of the city under siege.
ALSO GROWS
hirṣâ: To appease, satisfy, or make acceptable
הִרְצָה
This form keeps the root’s language of favor and acceptance, which echoes in the city’s name.
mĕruṣṣeh: Pleased, satisfied, acceptable
מְרֻצֶּה
This form carries the root’s sense of being received with favor, sharpening the contrast with the force closing around Tirzah.
THE PATTERN
A siege turns a city’s boundary into an instrument of confinement.
And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,THE THREAD
And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.The Hebrew uses the same root, צור, for the siege of Tirzah and the siege of Samaria. In both verses, a city is enclosed by organized force, and its boundary becomes the site of pressure.
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