What Does 1 Kings 21:4 Mean in the King James?
And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.
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
Ahab turns from bread at home because the inheritance he cannot obtain has become larger to him than what he can receive.
THE MEANING
A denied possession can grow so large that what is present loses its appeal. Ahab has a house, a bed, and bread, yet the inheritance he wants fills his attention and turns his face from them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that being refused one desired thing means nothing remains to receive. Ahab’s bread and home remain, even as resentment makes him turn from them.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָה
naḥalah
GROWS FROM
נחל
To inherit or receive as a possession; to assign an allotted possession.
“inheritance” in this verse is naḥalah. נַחֲלָה names a received portion carried through a family, not simply a convenient piece of land. Ahab’s grievance begins when he treats another family’s inherited portion as something he should be able to obtain.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or receive as a possession.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as receiving a portion, rather than acquiring whatever one desires.
hinḥil: To cause someone to inherit; to assign as a possession.
הִנְחִיל
This form makes the handoff between generations explicit in Naboth’s words, “of my fathers.”
לֶחֶם
leḥem
GROWS FROM
לחם
The root family carries the linked senses of food and fighting.
English separates bread from battle, but Hebrew places לֶחֶם alongside words for fighting under the same consonants. Here, Ahab’s refusal of bread shows how the withheld land governs even his relation to nourishment.
ALSO GROWS
lāḥam: To fight or wage war.
לָחַם
The shared root brings struggle into the word-family around the bread Ahab refuses.
milḥāmāh: War or battle.
מִלְחָמָה
This branch gives the root’s conflict-sense a noun form, sharpening the contrast between nourishment and struggle in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Fixation on a withheld possession can turn into resentment that blocks a person from receiving what remains.
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.THE THREAD
And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.Both verses use נַחֲלָה (naḥalah, inheritance) for the portion Naboth received from his fathers. His refusal names the land as an inherited family portion; Ahab’s response shows how that withheld portion eclipses even the bread at home.
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