What Does 1 Kings 21:5 Mean in the King James?
But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest 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
The Hebrew pictures a spirit turned aside, while the untouched bread makes that inward turn visible.
THE MEANING
When your inward life turns aside, ordinary rhythms can show the change before you can explain it. The verse holds the inner state beside the untouched bread: heaviness has become visible at the table. Someone else can notice what you have not yet put into words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inward struggle stays invisible until it is spoken: here, it appears in the ordinary sign of uneaten bread.
THE ROOT
סָרָה
sarah
GROWS FROM
סור
Turn aside, depart, or withdraw.
The word rendered “sad” also carries the sense of being turned aside or having departed. Beside “spirit,” it pictures an inward state as a turning away, and the untouched bread makes that turn visible.
ALSO GROWS
asurah: I will turn aside.
אָסוּרָה
This is the form used when Moses says he will turn aside to look at the burning bush (Exodus 3:3).
sar: Turned aside; departed.
סָר
This form preserves the same movement of turning away that the verse gives to Ahab’s inward state.
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
Air in motion; blowing.
English separates this word into “spirit,” “wind,” and “breath,” while Hebrew holds those meanings in one word. Here, that unity keeps Ahab’s inward heaviness close to breath and wind without reducing one to the other.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind.
רוּחַ
The same word names moving air, showing that its meaning reaches beyond an inward state.
ruach: Breath; spirit.
רוּחַ
The same word can name breath and the inner spirit, letting the verse hold both senses together.
THE PATTERN
Scripture shows inward distress reaching ordinary nourishment, so the table can disclose what the heart carries.
And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.THE THREAD
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.The word translated “sad” shares the root סור (sur, “turn aside”) with Moses’ words, “I will now turn aside.” There the turn brings him toward what he sees; here Ahab’s inward state is described as turned aside, and the untouched meal makes the change visible.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us