What Does 1 Kings 20:5 Mean in the King James?
And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children;
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 plain verb is “give,” yet the demand reaches into another’s family, showing how the language of transfer can carry coercion.
THE MEANING
The demand returns, now naming what it claims: silver, gold, wives, and children. The word rendered “deliver” is the ordinary verb “give,” but the command makes the transfer coercive. The list shows power reaching past possessions into the household.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Calling a transfer “giving” does not make it voluntary; the command and the list expose the pressure behind the word.
THE ROOT
תִּתֵּן
titten
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place
Under “deliver” is the ordinary verb “give,” תִּתֵּן (titten, “you shall give”), from נתן (natan, “give, set, place”). The root can speak of gifts and of things placed into another’s hands; here, the command makes the transfer coercive, and the list shows its reach into family life.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the root of “give,” showing how the same root can name a gift as well as a demanded transfer.
mattan: Present, gift
מַתָּן
This branch also names something given; the verse’s command shows that the root alone does not tell whether a transfer is willing.
THE PATTERN
Power becomes visible when it treats another person’s possessions, labor, or family as available for its own use.
And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.Both verses use נתן (natan, “give”). Psalm 37 places giving beside the aligned person, while here the same root carries a transfer imposed by power; the shared root names the act, and the surrounding relationship reveals its nature.
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