What Does 1 Kings 2:16 Mean in the King James?
And now I ask one petition of thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, Say on.
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
Before he names the request, he asks the hearer not to turn his face away, the first thing he seeks is access to the listener.
THE MEANING
You meet a request that asks for a hearing before disclosing what it wants: “deny me not” pictures a face not turned away. “Say on” opens space for speech, but the petition remains unanswered; hearing and agreeing are not yet the same act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being willing to hear a request is not the same as agreeing to it.
THE ROOT
אַל־תָּשִׁבִי אֶת־פָּנָי
al-tashivi et-panai
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn, return; here, turn someone’s face away.
“deny me not” in this verse is al-tashivi et-panai. The Hebrew pictures refusal as turning the speaker’s face back. The appeal is for an open face, a hearing, before the request itself is revealed.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn, return.
שׁוּב
This is the root movement in the phrase: a face can be turned away or turned back toward someone.
teshuvah: Return; answer or response.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The word’s connection to turning lets an answer carry the sense of something returned to the one who asked.
שְׁאֵלָה אַחַת אָנֹכִי שֹׁאֵל
she'elah achat anokhi
GROWS FROM
שׁאל
sha'al
Ask, inquire, request.
The Hebrew pairs the noun for “petition” with a verb from the same root: “one petition I am asking.” The repeated seed keeps attention on the act of asking, while the content is still withheld.
ALSO GROWS
she'elah: A request or petition.
שְׁאֵלָה
This is the noun translated “petition,” one form of the root’s act of asking.
sha'al: Ask or inquire.
שָׁאַל
The verb shares the petition’s root, making the request noun and the act of asking sound like one thought.
THE PATTERN
A request is spoken into a relationship, while its answer remains with the one who hears it.
For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him:Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:THE THREAD
Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee, say me not nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother: for I will not say thee nay.Bathsheba’s “say me not nay” echoes Adonijah’s “deny me not”: both phrases use שׁוּב (shuv, turn or return) with “face,” though the KJV renders the idiom differently. The repeated image makes refusal a turning away, as each request seeks assurance before its substance is disclosed.
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