What Does 1 Kings 18:31 Mean in the King James?
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:
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 name Israel holds twelve distinct tribes together without making them indistinguishable.
THE MEANING
The name Israel is a shared identity that keeps its distinct parts visible: twelve stones stand for twelve tribes. Wholeness here is made from many, with each part still countable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that belonging requires sameness: the altar is one, yet its stones remain twelve, each standing for a tribe.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; the noun from this root can mean a word, matter, or thing.
Davar can mean both a spoken word and a matter or thing. The verse places the LORD’s naming word beside stones that can be counted: the name is spoken and made tangible through the gathered tribes.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The LORD’s word establishes the name Israel, while the stones give that shared identity a visible form.
dibber: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form makes the naming an act of speech, not merely a label already attached to the people.
devarim: Words or matters; the plural of davar.
דְּבָרִים
The same root holds speech and concrete matters together, echoing the verse’s movement from a spoken name to physical stones.
שִׁבְטֵי
shivtei
GROWS FROM
שבט
Rod or staff; the same word also means tribe or clan.
The Hebrew word for a tribe also means a rod or staff. The tribes are distinct units gathered into a shared structure, and the twelve stones keep that count visible.
ALSO GROWS
shevet: Rod, staff, tribe, or clan.
שֵׁבֶט
The shared word links the people to a concrete, countable unit rather than an abstract category.
shevatim: Tribes; the plural form.
שִׁבְטִים
This plural form names the many groups represented by the twelve stones.
shivtei: Tribes of; the construct plural used in the verse.
שִׁבְטֵי
The construct form ties the tribes to the sons of Jacob and their shared name.
אֲבָנִים
avanim
GROWS FROM
אבן
Stone; the root remains אבן across the noun’s singular and plural forms.
The same word moves from a single stone to stones and stones-of. Here the plural material matches the count of the tribes, so the shared name stays embodied in distinct pieces.
ALSO GROWS
even: A stone.
אֶבֶן
The singular makes the physical unit clear: each stone can stand for one tribe.
avnei: Stones of; the construct form.
אַבְנֵי
This form binds stones into a larger structure, as the tribes are gathered under one name.
avanim: Stones; the plural form in the verse.
אֲבָנִים
The plural keeps the many visible within the altar’s shared form.
THE PATTERN
A shared whole can gather distinct members while keeping each one visible.
And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.THE THREAD
And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.The next verse repeats the Hebrew word אֲבָנִים (avanim), “stones,” and shows what the gathered stones become: an altar. Here they represent the tribes; there, those same stones form one structure in the name of the LORD.
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