What Does 1 Kings 20:35 Mean in the King James?

And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him.

1 Kings 20:35 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

A real blow stands inside the phrase “the word of the LORD,” holding divine authority and bodily violence in the same frame.

THE MEANING

You meet a clash between a word presented as coming from the LORD and a request for a real blow: one person asks, and the other refuses. The verse keeps the refusal visible without making the commanded violence abstract or gentle.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It unsettles the belief that refusing an act is automatically innocent: here, the refusal answers a request framed as the LORD’s word.

THE ROOT

דָּבָר

davar

GROWS FROM

דבר

d-b-r

Speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or affair.

Davar can name both what is spoken and the matter at hand, so “in the word of the LORD” gives the request the force of a concrete commission. Speech is followed at once by “strike me”: the word reaches toward a bodily act.

ALSO GROWS

dibber: He spoke.

דִּבֶּר

The verb and the noun share the root, linking the spoken word to the matter it sets before the hearer.

davar: A word, matter, or affair.

דָּבָר

This wider sense helps the phrase carry more than sound: it frames the request as something to be answered in action.

הַכֵּנִי

hakkeni

GROWS FROM

נכה

Strike or beat.

“smite” in this verse is hakkeni. The root names a physical blow, not a vague rebuke. It keeps the violence exposed even as “the word of the LORD” gives the request its authority.

ALSO GROWS

makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.

מַכָּה

This noun preserves the force of the strike requested here.

hikkah: He struck.

הִכָּה

This verb form makes clear that the root can describe a completed bodily act.

THE PATTERN

A word that claims authority presses beyond hearing into a concrete response.

But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Deuteronomy 30:14 · KJVThe word is close enough to be spoken and carried out, joining hearing to action.

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Luke 6:46 · KJVThe question exposes the gap between recognizing a voice and responding to what it says.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

James 1:22 · KJVThe verse names response as the point where hearing becomes embodied.

THE THREAD

Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him.

1 Kings 20:37 · KJV

The same Hebrew root for “smite” appears again, but this time the other man strikes and wounds the prophet. The repeated word makes the first refusal sharper: the blow is real, and the story turns on how each man answers the request.

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