What Does 1 Kings 17:13 Mean in the King James?
And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
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 puts reassurance and cost in the same breath: the first portion is claimed from the last food.
THE MEANING
The verse meets scarcity with reassurance and a severe request together: a little cake from the remaining food is to go to Elijah first. Comfort does not make the cost disappear; the tension stays in the sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“Fear not” means no costly demand will follow.
THE ROOT
בָּרִאשֹׁנָה
ba-rishonah
GROWS FROM
ר־א־שׁ
rosh
Head; the foremost point or beginning.
The word for “first” comes from the family of rosh, “head,” so the request establishes whose portion occupies the lead in the sequence. The cake for Elijah is made before the food for the woman and her son.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head; chief.
רֹאשׁ
The root holds the sense of a leading place inside the word “first.”
reshit: Beginning; first or firstfruits.
רֵאשִׁית
It shows how this root can name the beginning or first yield of a sequence.
כִדְבָרֵךְ
kidvarekh
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
Speaking; word or matter.
“as thou hast said” in this verse is kidvarekh. Hebrew names her plan as her davar, both her word and the matter she has described. Elijah accepts what she has said, then changes its order with “first.”
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter; thing.
דָּבָר
Her spoken plan is treated as the concrete matter under discussion.
dibber: Spoke; spoke with.
דִּבֵּר
The verb shares the root with davar, linking what she says to the matter that is about to be done.
אַל־תִּירְאִי
al-tir’i
GROWS FROM
י־ר־א
yare
To fear or stand in awe.
Yare can carry fear or awe; here the danger-facing sense fits the threat of having too little to live on. “Fear not” sits beside the costly request, so reassurance does not erase the material threat.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear; awe.
יִרְאָה
It carries the same root into the noun for the state of fearing or standing in awe.
nora: Fearful; awe-inspiring.
נוֹרָא
This related form shows how the root can describe what inspires fear or awe.
THE PATTERN
These stories place material scarcity beside provision that proves sufficient for more than one person.
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.And they did all eat, and were filled.THE THREAD
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.The next verse supplies the promise that verse 13 leaves unstated: the meal and oil will not be exhausted before rain returns. It clarifies why “first” follows “Fear not,” while leaving the cost of the request visible.
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