What Does 1 Kings 21:28 Mean in the King James?

And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

1 Kings 21:28 · 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.

THE KEY

The LORD’s word is ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (dābār), both speech and matter, so what arrives carries substance.

THE MEANING

The LORD’s word meets you as an address with substance, not detached information. This verse holds the threshold before its message is spoken: what the word says follows.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a word from God is only abstract information; here the word arrives to a person and moves toward speech.

THE ROOT

דָּבָר

dābār

GROWS FROM

ד־ב־ר

d-b-r

To speak or declare.

⁨דָּבָר⁩ (dābār) can mean both “word” and “matter” or “thing.” The English “word” can sound like mere speech, but the Hebrew carries the sense of speech with substance: what is spoken is bound to the matter it names.

ALSO GROWS

dibbēr: He spoke; he declared.

דִּבֵּר

This verb form shows the root’s speaking force: the arriving word leads into an address.

devarim: Words; matters or things.

דְּבָרִים

The plural preserves the link between speech and what is at stake, deepening the sense of the LORD’s word as more than sound.

THE PATTERN

The divine word arrives as an address and carries substance into the life it reaches.

Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Jeremiah 1:4 · KJVThe same arriving word opens into speech addressed to a person.

Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

Luke 3:2 · KJVThe word of God is again presented as something that comes to a person.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 · KJVThe word is shown as active, reaching into the inner matter of a person.

THE THREAD

Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Jeremiah 1:4 · KJV

Jeremiah’s verse repeats the same Hebrew word, ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (dābār), and the same movement from the LORD’s word arriving to speech following. Together, the verses let you hear “word” as both utterance and the matter carried by that utterance.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us